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International

Journal of Bioprinting

REVIEW ARTICLE
3D printing and bioprinting in urology

Kun Liu , Nan Hu , Zhihai Yu , Xinzhou Zhang , Hualin Ma *, Huawei Qu *,
3
1†
2
2
2†
1
and Changshun Ruan *
3
1 Department of Urology, Three Gorges Hospital, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China
2 Department of Nephrology, Shenzhen People’s Hospital (The Second Clinical Medical College,
Jinan University; The First Affiliated Hospital, Southern University of Science and Technology),
Shenzhen, China
3
Research Center for Human Tissue and Organs Degeneration, Institute of Biomedicine and
Biotechnology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Shenzhen, China
Abstract
Three-dimensional (3D) printing with highly flexible fabrication offers unlimited
possibilities to create complex constructs. With the addition of active substances
such as biomaterials, living cells, and growth factors, 3D printing can be upgraded to
3D bioprinting, endowing fabricated constructs with biological functions. Urology,
as one of the important branches of clinical medicine, covers a variety of organs
in the human body, such as kidneys, bladder, urethra, and prostate. The urological
organs are multi-tubular, heterogeneous, and anisotropic, bringing huge challenges
† These authors contributed equally to 3D printing and bioprinting. This review aims to summarize the development of
to this work. 3D printing and bioprinting technologies in urology in the last decade based on
*Corresponding authors: the Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCI-E) in the Web of Science Core Collection
Hualin Ma online database (Clarivate). First, we demonstrate the search strategies for published
(mahualin0796@sina.com) papers using the keywords such as “3D printing,” “3D bioprinting,” and “urology.”
Huawei Qu Then, eight common 3D printing technologies were introduced in detail with their
(hw.qu@siat.ac.cn) characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages. Furthermore, the application of
Changshun Ruan
(cs.ruan@siat.ac.cn) 3D printing in urology was explored, such as the fabrication of diseased organs for
doctor–patient communication, surgical planning, clinical teaching, and the creation
Citation: Liu K, Hu N, Yu Z, et al., of customized medical devices. Finally, we discuss the exploration of 3D bioprinting
2023, 3D printing and bioprinting in
urology. Int J Bioprint, 9(6): 0969. to create in vitro bionic 3D environment models for urology. Overall, 3D printing
https://doi.org/10.36922/ijb.0969 provides the technical support for urology to better serve patients and aid teaching,
Received: May 21, 2023 and 3D bioprinting enables the clinical applications of fabricated constructs for the
Accepted: July 4, 2023 replacement and repair of urologically damaged organs in future.
Published Online: August 10, 2023
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s).
This is an Open Access article Keywords: 3D printing; Bioprinting; Urology
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, 1. Introduction
provided the original work is
properly cited. Three-dimensional (3D) printing, also known as additive manufacturing (AM), has
Publisher’s Note: AccScience been developed and improved over the last few decades [1-4] . Traditional 3D printing
Publishing remains neutral with technology uses a planar layer printing strategy with a process originally developed for
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional rapid prototyping. Digital models are sliced by it along the Z-axis to produce a set of
affiliations. digital models with horizontal build layers in the X–Y plane. These layers are then stacked

Volume 9 Issue 6 (2023) 325 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijb.0969