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Updated: Jun 26, 2026
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Generation of Tissue Spheroids via a 3D Printed Stamp-Like Device
Published on: October 6, 2022
Organ printing: tissue spheroids as building blocks.
Vladimir Mironov1, Richard P Visconti, Vladimir Kasyanov
1Bioprinting Research Center, Cardiovascular Developmental Biology Center, Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 29425, USA. mironovv@musc.edu
Biomaterials
|January 30, 2009
Summary
Organ printing uses robotic biofabrication of living tissue spheroids to create 3D organ constructs. This developmental biology-inspired approach enables the creation of functional organs with integrated vascular networks.
Area of Science:
- Biotechnology
- Regenerative Medicine
- Developmental Biology
Background:
- Organ printing is a layer-by-layer robotic biofabrication technique for creating 3D functional living tissues and organs.
- Tissue spheroids, composed of living materials with controllable properties, serve as fundamental building blocks.
- Tissue fusion, a principle of directed tissue self-assembly, is essential for construct development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To define organ printing as an emerging enabling technology.
- To highlight the use of tissue spheroids as building blocks for organ constructs.
- To present organ printing as a developmental biology-inspired alternative to scaffold-based tissue engineering.
Main Methods:
- Layer-by-layer additive robotic biofabrication.
- Utilizing tissue spheroids (microtissues) as building blocks.
- Engineering vascular networks using solid and lumenized vascular tissue spheroids.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated the feasibility of creating 3D functional living macrotissues and organ constructs.
- Showcased the engineering of intraorgan branched vascular tree segments.
- Established tissue fusion as a key process for directed tissue self-assembly.
Conclusions:
- Organ printing enables large-scale industrial biofabrication of human organ constructs.
- The technology integrates a perfusable intraorgan branched vascular tree.
- Organ printing offers a novel paradigm shift from traditional scaffold-based tissue engineering approaches.
