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PERSPECTIVE ARTICLE

Biofabrication offers future hope for tackling various

obstacles and challenges in tissue engineering and

regenerative medicine: A Perspective

Tanveer Ahmad Mir 1,2,3 , Shintaroh Iwanaga , Taketoshi Kurooka , Hideki Toda , Shinji Sakai ,
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Makoto Nakamura *
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1 Graduate School of Science and Engineering for Research (Engineering), University of Toyama, Toyama 930-8555, Japan
2 Toyama Nanotechnology Manufacturing Cluster, Toyama, Japan
3 Laboratory of Biosensors, BioMEMS and Bionanotechnology, Alfaisal University Riyadh 11533, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
4 Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, 1-3, Machikaneyama-Cho, Toyonaka City, Osaka 560-8531, Japan
Abstract: Biofabrication is an emerging multidisciplinary field that makes a revolutionary impact on the researches on life
science, biomedical engineering, and both basic and clinical medicine, has progressed tremendously over the past few years.
Recently, there has been a big boom in three-dimensional (3D) printing or additive manufacturing (AM) research worldwide,
and there is a significant increase not only in the number of researchers turning their attention to AM but also publications
demonstrating the potential applications of 3D printing techniques in multiple fields. Biofabrication and bioprinting hold great
promise for the innovation of engineering-based organ replacing medicine. In this mini review, various challenges in the field
of tissue engineering are focused from the point of view of the biofabrication - strategies to bridge the gap between organ
shortage and mission of medical innovation research seek to achieve organ-specific treatments or regenerative therapies. Four
major challenges are discussed including (i) challenge of producing organs by AM, (ii) digitalization of tissue engineering
and regenerative medicine, (iii) rapid production of organs beyond the biological natural course, and (iv) extracorporeal organ
engineering.
Keywords: Biofabrication; bioprinting; tissue engineering; regenerative medicine

*Correspondence to: Makato Nakamura, Division of Biomedical System Engineering, Graduate School of Science and Engineering for Research
University of Toyama, Toyama 930-8555, Japan; maknaka@eng.u-toyama.ac.jp
Received: July 1, 2018; Accepted: July 2, 2018; Published Online: December 31, 2018

Citation: Mir T A, Nakamura M, Iwanaga S, et al., 2019, Biofabrication offers future hope for tackling various obstacles and
challenges in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine: A Perspective. Int J Bioprint, 5(1): 153. http://dx.doi.org/10.18063/
ijb.v5i1.153

1. Introduction and Backgrounds of with organ transplant facilities have been facing critical
Biofabrication (Bioprinting) shortage of donor organs and the scale of the problem is
getting worse every year all over the world. There has been
Organ failure is a critical issue in the health-care sector
and there are currently millions of people waiting for a tremendous increase in the number of patients on organ
organ transplants throughout the world [1-7] . The demand for transplant waiting list as well as a sharp rise in the number
organ transplantation has increased over time. Although of patients dying while awaiting lifesaving organ transplant
organ donation can save the lives of many needy patients, operations for years. As a result, one in 10 on transplant
the problem is, there simply are not enough organ waiting list dies before organ is found and millions of people
donors to meet demand [8,9] . Hospitals and health centers die due to the lack of available organs for transplant [10-13] .

Biofabrication offers future hope for tackling various obstacles and challenges in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine: A Perspective. © 2019
Nakamura. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits
all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited.
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