Trends in Scientific Reports on Cartilage Bioprinting: Scoping Review

Àngels Salvador Vergés; Meltem Yildirim; Bertran Salvador; Francesc Garcia Cuyas

doi:10.2196/15017

Trends in Scientific Reports on Cartilage Bioprinting: Scoping Review

JMIR Form Res. 2019 Aug 28;3(3):e15017. doi: 10.2196/15017.

Authors

Àngels Salvador Vergés¹, Meltem Yildirim², Bertran Salvador³, Francesc Garcia Cuyas⁴

Affiliations

¹ Digital Care Research Group, Universitat de Vic - Universitat Central de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.
² Research Group on Methodology, Methods, Models and Outcomes of Health and Social Sciences, Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences and Welfare, Universitat de Vic - Universitat Central de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.
³ Communication Department, University Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain.
⁴ Catalan Society of Digital Health, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Universitat de Vic - Universitat Central de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.

PMID: 31464195
PMCID: PMC6737890
DOI: 10.2196/15017

Abstract

Background: Satisfactory therapeutic strategies for cartilaginous lesion repair do not yet exist. This creates a challenge for surgeons and biomedical engineers and leads them to investigate the role of bioprinting and tissue engineering as viable treatments through orthopedic surgery, plastic surgery, and otorhinolaryngology. Recent increases in related scientific literature suggest that bioprinted cartilage may develop into a viable solution.

Objective: The objectives of this review were to (1) synthesize the scientific advances published to date, (2) identify unresolved technical problems regarding human application, and (3) identify more effective ways for the scientific community to transfer their findings to clinicians.

Methods: This scoping review considered articles published between 2009 and 2019 that were identified through searching PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Arksey and O'Malley's five-step framework was used to delimit and direct the initial search results, from which we established the following research questions: (1) What do authors of current research say about human application? (2) What necessary technical improvements are identified in the research? (3) On which issues do the authors agree? and (4) What future research priorities emerge in the studies? We used the Cohen kappa statistic to validate the interrater reliability.

Results: The 13 articles included in the review demonstrated the feasibility of cartilage bioprinting in live animal studies. Some investigators are already considering short-term human experimentation, although technical limitations still need to be resolved. Both the use and manufacturing process of stem cells need to be standardized, and a consensus is needed regarding the composition of hydrogels. Using on-site printing strategies and predesigned implants may allow techniques to adapt to multiple situations. In addition, the predictive capacity of implant behavior may lead to optimal results.

Conclusions: Cartilage bioprinting for surgical applications is nearing its initial use in humans. Current research suggests that surgeons will soon be able to replace damaged tissue with bioprinted material.

Keywords: cartilage 3D printing; cartilage biomaterials; cartilage repair; chondrogenesis; knowledge; surgery; tissue engineering.

©Àngels Salvador Vergés, Meltem Yildirim, Bertran Salvador, Francesc Garcia Cuyas. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (http://formative.jmir.org), 28.08.2019.