Chapter 13: 3D-bioprinting for Engineering Complex Tissues and Vascularization

The main clinical therapeutic methods used for the repair of tissue organ defects include organ transplantation, surgical reconstruction, artificial substitutes, medical instruments, drug delivery and so on. Although organ transplantation is the most useful method, it has the disadvantages of limited number of donors and the annual increase in the rate of global organ shortage. Recently, 3D-printing and 3D-bioprinting methods have been increasingly used to fabricate personalized artificial organs with multifunctionality. And in this chapter, we discuss about 3D-bioprinting methods and vascularization of complex tissues. Human defects caused by trauma, congenital deformity, tumor excision and degenerative disease have serious physiological and psychological impacts on human health. Nowadays, tissue organ defects and functional impairments have become the major concerns, which lead to serious health problems and even death. The main clinical therapeutic methods include organ transplantation, surgical reconstruction, artificial substitutes, medical instruments, drug delivery and so on. Among these, organ transplantation method has been used to save millions of patients’ lives since the 1950s, but the number of patients needed to take this surgery far surpasses the number of donors, and the rate of global organ shortage increases annually. Besides this, the donor from autograft will induce new defects, and the donor from allograft will induce immunogenicity. Therefore, an alternative is needed for the patients who need to take the organ transplantation surgery.