Microfluidic bioprinting for organ-on-a-chip models

Abstract

Bioprinting is a revolutionary technology to assemble scaffolds for growing tissues. Microfluidic organs-on-a-chip is a useful platform with widespread applications mainly in drug screening and pathological studies. Organ-on-a-chip models are created to recapitulate the structural, microenvironmental and physiological functions of human organs. Recently, bioprinting has been applied to fabricate organ-on-a-chip models owing to its ability to print multiple materials and cell types simultaneously with good spatial resolution and reproducibility. This enables the creation of a biomimetic microenvironment with heterogeneous 3D structures. Functional vascularized tissue structure can be printed directly enabling fluid flow for transport of nutrition, gaseous exchange and removal of waste. We examine the integration of microfluidic and bioprinting technologies for organ-on-a-chip applications and discuss the future trends and challenges.