Recent Advancements in Bioprinting for Liver Tissue Engineering.

Three-dimensional (3D) printing has shown broad applicability in tissue engineering in the last few years. This additive manufacturing technique has been successful in printing complex biodegradable scaffolds and cellular constructs. Its versatility ranges from the fabrication of the hard bone tissues to the highly soft tissues like skin and kidney using synthetic or natural polymers. Recent research advances focus on developing biomimicking tissues, organoids, or organs to replace or bridge the requirement for synthetic implants, organ transplantation, animal model studies for drug screening and development, and personalized medicine profiling, especially for vital organs like the liver. Liver being the most metabolically active organ, undergoes gradual damage over the years of repetitive insults, resulting in severe chronic illness. Despite several advances, 3D printing technology is yet to prove its potential in translating biomimicking liver constructs with high vasculature, functional efficacy, varying stiffness, and complex architectural properties similar to liver lobules. Hence, this review article describes the advanced 3D printing techniques, their advantages and ongoing challenges employed during the fabrication of functionalized liver constructs. It also discusses the favorable solutions available and futuristic approaches for the construction of heterogeneous liver tissue along with its extracellular matrix for generating a new platform to facilitate liver disease treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]