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Inkjet Printing for Biofabrication

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3D Printing and Biofabrication

Part of the book series: Reference Series in Biomedical Engineering ((TIENRE))

Abstract

Inkjet printing is a noncontact printing technology with high resolution, high throughput, and considerable reproducibility. Instead of printing normal ink, inkjet technology is also applied in the field of biofabrication to print living cells and other biological factors. Cell viability and function were demonstrated to be sustained after printing. Besides two dimensional cell patterns, three-dimensional cell-laden hydrogel structures can also be inkjet printed through cross-linking. Special phenomena such as the temporary permeability change of cell membranes were also observed during printing procedures, thus making it possible to achieve gene transfection through inkjet printing. Inkjet-printed biomolecule patterns with gradient concentration were also used to direct cell fates. Since the diversity of bioink and the capability of fabricating complex structures, inkjet bioprinting behaves as an effective tool in the field of biofabrication. The applications of inkjet printing include but not limit to drug formulation, tissue repair, and cancer research.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biomanufacturing Center, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Xinda Li & Tao Xu

  2. Department of Precision Medicine and Healthcare, Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China

    Jianwei Chen, Boxun Liu & Tao Xu

  3. Biomanufacturing Engineering Research Laboratory, Graduate School at Shenzhen Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China

    Xiong Wang & Tao Xu

  4. Medprin Regenerative Medical Technologies Co., Ltd., Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China

    Dongni Ren

Authors
  1. Xinda Li
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  2. Jianwei Chen
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  3. Boxun Liu
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  4. Xiong Wang
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  5. Dongni Ren
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  6. Tao Xu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tao Xu .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Materials Science and Technology, Technische Universität Wien (TU Wien), Vienna, Austria

    Aleksandr Ovsianikov

  2. Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA

    James Yoo

  3. 3D Bioprinting Solutions (3D Bio), The Laboratory of Biotechnological Research, Moscow, Russia

    Vladimir Mironov

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Li, X., Chen, J., Liu, B., Wang, X., Ren, D., Xu, T. (2018). Inkjet Printing for Biofabrication. In: Ovsianikov, A., Yoo, J., Mironov, V. (eds) 3D Printing and Biofabrication. Reference Series in Biomedical Engineering(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45444-3_26

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