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ReseaRch aRticle

Uncovering 3D bioprinting research trends: A keyword

network mapping analysis

Leonardo Azael Garcia-Garcia,Marisela Rodriguez-Salvador
*
Tecnologico de Monterrey, Escuela de Ingenieria y Ciencias, Laboratorio Nacional de Manufactura Aditiva y Digital
(MADiT), Monterrey, N.L., Mexico

abstract: A scientometric analysis as part of a Competitive Technology Intelligence methodology was used to determine the
main research efforts in 3D bioprinting. Papers from Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) published between 2000 and 2017
were analysed. A network map of the most frequently occurring keywords in these articles was created, and their average
publication year (APY) was determined. The analysis focused on the most relevant keywords that occurred at least five
times. A total of 1,759 keywords were obtained, and a co-occurrence analysis was developed for APYs with more keywords:
2011–2016. The results indicated that Polylactic Acid (PLA) is the material used most often. Applications mainly focused
on bone tissue engineering and regeneration. The most frequently used technique was inkjet printing, and the main cell
sources were Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSC). From a general perspective, ‘Treatment’ and ‘Bioink’ were the most frequent
keywords. The former was mainly related to cancer, regenerative medicine, and MSC and the latter, to multicellular spheroid
deposition and the use of hydrogels like GelMA (gelatin methacryloyl). This analysis provides insights to stakeholders
involved in 3D bioprinting research and development who need to keep abreast of scientific progress in the field.
Keywords: scientometric analysis; data mining; competitive technology intelligence; 3D bioprinting

*Correspondence to: Marisela Rodriguez-Salvador, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Escuela de Ingenieria y Ciencias, Mexico; marisrod@itesm.mx

Received: May 30, 2018; accepted: June 28, 2018; Published Online: July 9, 2018
citation: Garcia-Garcia L A, Rodriguez-Salvador M, 2018, Uncovering 3D bioprinting research trends: A keyword network
mapping analysis. Int J Bioprint, 4(2): 147. http://dx.doi.org/10.18063/IJB.v4i2.147

1. introduction 3D scaffolds using biocompatible materials, to which
cell aggregates are added to promote tissue growth [5,8,9] .
In recent years, advanced manufacturing systems 3D bioprinting refers to simultaneously writing living
have attracted industrial and academic interest since cells and biomaterials with a prescribed layer-by-layer
they can overcome the limitations of traditional stacking organization . It is one of the most promising
[10]
manufacturing. Issues such as material waste reduction, technologies for addressing diverse health problems, and
production of complex forms, tailored product design, therefore, numerous research efforts have focused on
and long manufacturing times have been mitigated further developing this technique. To support research
greatly by using three-dimensional (3D) printing. In and development (R&D) decision-making processes,
the last decade, 3D printing has been used in wide- it is important to keep abreast of global scientific
ranging applications, from prototyping to printing advancements. In this regard, scientometric and
medical devices and even living tissue through the patentometric methods enable the analysis of scientific
deposition of cell aggregates [1–4] . A major challenge in documents and patents to determine trends related to
printing living tissue is fabricating complex organs, research areas, materials, and methods. Two of the
and this objective will likely remain unachieved for most widely used tools for this purpose are co-citation
some years [1,5–7] . However, it is now possible to build and co-occurrence analyses [11,12] . Co-citation analysis

Uncovering 3D bioprinting research trends: A keyword network mapping analysis. © 2018 Garcia-Garcia L A and Rodriguez-Salvador M. This is an Open
Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc/4.0/), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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