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REVIEW ARTICLE

Applications of 3D Bioprinted-Induced Pluripotent

Stem Cells in Healthcare

Soja Saghar Soman , Sanjairaj Vijayavenkataraman 1,2
1
1 Division of Engineering, New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE
2 Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Tandon School of Engineering, New York University, NY, USA

Abstract: Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology and advancements in three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting
technology enable scientists to reprogram somatic cells to iPSCs and 3D print iPSC-derived organ constructs with native
tissue architecture and function. iPSCs and iPSC-derived cells suspended in hydrogels (bioinks) allow to print tissues and
organs for downstream medical applications. The bioprinted human tissues and organs are extremely valuable in regenerative
medicine as bioprinting of autologous iPSC-derived organs eliminates the risk of immune rejection with organ transplants.
Disease modeling and drug screening in bioprinted human tissues will give more precise information on disease mechanisms,
drug efficacy, and drug toxicity than experimenting on animal models. Bioprinted iPSC-derived cancer tissues will aid in
the study of early cancer development and precision oncology to discover patient-specific drugs. In this review, we present
a brief summary of the combined use of two powerful technologies, iPSC technology, and 3D bioprinting in health-care
applications.

Keywords: Induced pluripotent stem cells, Three-dimensional bioprinting, Regenerative medicine, Disease modeling, Cancer
iPSCs, Drug screening.

*Corresponding Author: Sanjairaj Vijayavenkataraman, Division of Engineering, New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE; vs89@nyu.edu
Received: March 05, 2020; Accepted: June 24, 2020; Published Online: July 30, 2020

Citation: Soman SS, Vijayavenkataraman S, 2020, Applications of 3D Bioprinted Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells in
Healthcare, Int J Bioprint, 6(4): 280. DOI: 10.18063/ijb.v6i4.280.

1 Introduction as the Yamanaka factors or Oct4, Sox2, Lin28,
[1]
and Nanog (OSLN) . Each of the Yamanaka
[2]
The advent of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) factor serve specific purposes, Sox2 interacts with
technology in 2006 paved the way for paradigm Oct3/4 to control gene expression. This interaction
shifting changes in regenerative medicine, disease is important in maintaining pluripotency . C‐Myc
[3]
modeling, and drug discovery applications.
The technology facilitates to de-differentiate plays an important role in controlling growth and
[4]
an adult cell to its pluripotent stem cell state differentiation of cells , whereas klf4 is crucial for
[5]
and then differentiate into defined cell lineages. cell division and maintenance of pluripotency .
iPSCs are phenotypically indistinguishable from Later, different combinations of at least 24
embryonic stem cells and they can differentiate embryonic transcription factors were identified to
[6]
into specialized cells of the body in cell culture induce stemness in adult cells . The Yamanaka
and in animal models. Initially, human iPSCs were factors are highly conserved and sufficient to
derived using transduction of genes coding for induce pluripotency across species.
four embryonic transcriptional regulators; Oct4, Reprogramming of somatic cells is
Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc (OSKM), popularly known orchestrated by cooperative binding of pioneer

© 2020 Soman, et al. 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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