Advances in bioprinting using additive manufacturing.

Since its conception in the 1980's, several advances in the field of additive manufacturing have led to exploration of alternate as well as combination biomaterials. These progresses have directed the use of 3D printing in wider applications such as printing of dermal layers, cartilage, bone defects, and surgical implants. Furthermore, the incorporation of live and functional cells with or atop biomaterials has laid the foundation for its use in tissue engineering. The purpose of this review is to summarize the advances in 3D printing and bioprinting of several types of tissues such as skin, cartilage, bones, and cardiac valves. This review will address the current 3D technologies used in tissue construction and study the biomaterials being investigated. There are several requirements that need to be addressed, in order to reconstruct functional tissue such as mechanical strength, porosity of the replicate and cellular incorporation. Researchers have focused their studies to answer questions regarding these requirements.