Three-dimensional Printing in the Intestine

Intestinal transplantation remains a life-saving option for patients with severe intestinal failure. With the advent of advanced tissue engineering techniques, great strides have been made toward manufacturing replacement tissues and organs, including the intestine, which aim to avoid transplant-related complications. The current paradigm is to seed a biocompatible support material (scaffold) with a desired cell population to generate viable replacement tissue. Although this technique has now been extended by the three-dimensional (3D) printing of geometrically complex scaffolds, the overall approach is hindered by relatively slow turnover and negative effects of residual scaffold material, which affects final clinical outcome. Methods recently developed for scaffold-free 3D bioprinting may overcome such obstacles and should allow for rapid manufacture and deployment of “bioprinted organs.” Much work remains before 3D bioprinted tissues can enter clinical use. In this brief review we examine the present state and future perspectives of this nascent technology before full clinical implementation.