3D Printing and Bioprinting: Near Future Prospectives

Abstract

In just a few years, three-dimensional printing has established itself as a technology capable of rewriting the concept of rapid prototyping, changing manufacturing industry as well as science, which has been able to exploit this new opportunity by applying it to very different fields. Medicine represents one of the most promising scientific sectors, in which three-dimensional printing methods are used [1-12]. Today, not only research institutions, but also hospitals around the world, use 3D-printed anatomical models to plan surgical interventions with greater precision, or to create supports in biocompatible material to be implanted. The future of three-dimensional printing is however, undoubtedly, being able to recreate entire tissues that are anatomically and functionally identical to natural ones, using stem cells and differentiated cells made to proliferate on biocompatible supports known as “scaffolds” [13-20].