Biofabrication of Three-Dimensional Tissue-Engineered Vascular Constructs

Organ transplantation has been successfully developed to save numerous patient lives in the last several decades. However, its limitations are becoming more and more conspicuous, such as immune rejection, and particularly organ donor shortage. For example, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services reports that around 22 people die each day due to organ donor shortage. Fortunately, organ printing offers a great potential for the fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) living tissues and organs based on precise layer-by-layer deposition using various tissue spheroids as building blocks. The fabricated tissues and organs are envisioned to be used for the replacement of damaged or injured human organs, providing a promising solution to the challenge of organ donor shortage. Vascularization has been widely recognized as a main technological barrier for building thick tissues and organs.