Biofabrication Strategies for Tissue Engineering

The success of Tissue Engineering (TE) strongly relies on the capability of designing biomimetic scaffolds closely resembling the host tissue environment. Due to the functional multitude of the native tissues, the considerations are complex and include chemical, morphological, mechanical and biological factors and their mutability with time. Nonetheless, to trigger and/or assist the “natural healing mechanism’’ of the human body it seems essential to provide an appropriate biomechanical environment and biomolecular signalling to the cells. Novel biomanufacturing processes are increasingly being recognized as ideal techniques to produce 3D biodegradable structures with optimal pore size and spatial distribution, providing an adequate mechanical support for tissue regeneration while shaping in-growing tissues. In this chapter, we discuss in detail the most recent advances in the field of biofabrication, providing and updated overview of processes and materials employed in the production of tissue engineering constructs. Bioprinting or ‘’scaffold-less’’ strategies are also presented in this work. They are based on the precise deposition of high-density tissue spheroids or cell aggregates being advantageous alternatives to the current scaffold-based tissue engineering approach.