3D bioprinting of cell-laden hydrogels for advanced tissue engineering

3D bioprinting is an emerging tissue engineering technique that enables the additive fabrication of different cell types and materials with a defined three-dimensional arrangement. This review provides an overview of different 3D bioprinting techniques, highlights their capabilities, and reveals limitations which still exist. Based on the described techniques we show how bioprinting can potentially impact patient care in the future following two different routes. We distinguish between the fabrication of tissue substitutes for implantation and the printing of tissue models as a platform for drug and toxicity screening. This review offers a state-of-the-art view of both of these fields of application, including the targeted tissue types, their stage of development as well as their initial applications, and provides an outlook on possible future developments in the field of 3D bioprinting.