3. Materials and Methods

The goal of this chapter is to better understand the bioprinting process by theoretically analyzing the correlated topics and questions. It summarizes the general criteria and research route for bioprinting. Despite numerous microextrusion bioprinting strategies developed, very little knowledge has been defined or discovered in terms of the nature of bioprinting. We believe that these strategies share some common features (e.g., one-dimensional filament as building block) that would lead to a better understanding and exploitation of this technology. This chapter will first analyze the general process of microextrusion bioprinting step by step and extract critical questions from each step. The general criteria will be subsequently concluded in terms of structural fidelity and cell protection. Based on the bioink crosslinking mechanisms, such criteria will be used to guide the design of the bioprinting process, covering the filament formation, deposition, and structure stabilization. Overall, a research route will be presented, which will be used in the subsequent case studies. Moreover, this chapter will introduce some general methods used in the study regarding rheology, 3D printability, shear stress determination, and cellular characterization.