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3D soft tissue printing—from vision to reality—review of current concepts

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European Journal of Plastic Surgery Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Tissue engineering, as stated by Langer and Vacanti, is an interdisciplinary field that applies the principles of engineering and life sciences toward the development of biological substitutes that restore, maintain, or improve biological tissue function or a whole organ. Tissue engineering incorporates several important components in order to create in vivo mimicry. Those factors are tissue specific and each organ poses a unique scope of requirements. Several unique fabrication methods exist: extrusion printing, inkjet, laser-assisted printing, stereolithography, and FRESH.

Methods

A systematic literature review via PubMed was performed to identify appropriate publications incorporating “keyword” phrases, “soft tissue”, “3D-printing”, “tissue engineering”, and “bio-engineering”, between Jan 2015 and Jan 2022 according to the PRISMA standard flowchart.

Results

Search result yielded 1350 papers. Two-hundred seventy eigth papers were assessed for inclusion criteria. Fifty-five full text articles were included in the qualitative synthesis. Articles were analyzed by the senior author (Y.W.) and divided to various fields of research: 3D-bioprinting technology, cellular component, bioink matrix and clinical implications. Each of these fields has undergone substantial development in recent years.

Conclusions

Due to the importance of 3D bioprinting and the never-ending progress in this field and its contribution to the field of medicine in term of clinical implementations, we believe that surgeons and physicians alike should familiarize themselves with the basic concepts of 3D-bio printing in order to keep track of the ever-growing literature of this fascinating sphere. We believe that a stepwise exposure of young physicians to this field is mandatory, from their basic science training through their internship and continuing advanced education.

Level of evidence: Not gradable.

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Funding

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Plastic Surgery Unit, Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, P.O.B 169, 38100, Hadera, Israel

    Roman Rysin & Yoram Wolf

  2. Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, The Technion, Haifa, Israel

    Roman Rysin

  3. Private Practice, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Roman Rysin & Yoram Wolf

  4. Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel

    Yair Shachar

  5. The Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

    Ran Bilaus & Liran Shapira

  6. School of Medicine, Hadassah Medical Organization and Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Ron Skorochod

  7. Maccabi Sherutei Briut, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Yoram Wolf

Authors
  1. Roman Rysin
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  2. Yair Shachar
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Contributions

Dr. Roman Rysin M.D: (1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, analysis, and interpretation of data; (2) drafting the article; (3) final approval of the version to be published; (4) agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Dr. Yoram Wolf M.D: (1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, analysis, and interpretation of data; (2) drafting the article; (3) final approval of the version to be published; (4) agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Dr. Yair Shachar: (1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation of data; (2) drafting the article; (3) final approval of the version to be published; (4) agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Ran Bilaus: (1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, analysis, and interpretation of data; (2) drafting the article; (3) final approval of the version to be published; (4) agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

. Liran Shapira: (1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, analysis, and interpretation of data; (2) drafting the article; (3) final approval of the version to be published; (4) agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Ron Skorochod: (1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, analysis, and interpretation of data; (2) drafting the article; (3) final approval of the version to be published; (4) agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yoram Wolf.

Ethics declarations

Ethical approval

This is an observational study. The 3D Soft Tissue printing- from vision to reality- Review of current concepts, Research Ethics Committee has confirmed that no ethical approval is required.

Informed consent

Informed consent was not obtained due to the nature of this study, a literature review.

Conflict of interest

Roman Rysin, MD; Yair Shachar MD, Ran Bilaus, B.sc, Liran Shapira, B.sc, Ron Skorochod, B.MED.SC, and Yoram Wolf, MD, declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Rysin, R., Shachar, Y., Bilaus, R. et al. 3D soft tissue printing—from vision to reality—review of current concepts. Eur J Plast Surg 46, 305–313 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00238-022-02018-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00238-022-02018-0

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