3D printing in tissue engineering: design of bioreactor systems

During last decades bioreactor systems have been widely in many fields of research such as pharmaceutic, biology, chemistry, and biomedicine. Focusing on biological applications, bioreactor systems are conventionally used to guide and support the development of in vitro tissues, thus to study the behaviour of tissues to physiological or pathological conditions. To this aim, components with complex geometries have to be conceived, but limits in using conventional manufacturing methods are still present. 3D printing technology solves this issue allowing to manufacture custom-designed complex parts in a simple, fast and low-cost manner. Several printing methods and materials are currently used. The right combination depends on the resolution, accuracy, and reproducibility you need for your applications, considering always biocompatibility and biodegradability as fundamental properties. This chapter explores the state of the art of 3D printing in tissue engineering, with a specific focus on bioreactor systems. Several 3D printed bioreactor systems/components have demonstrated improved biological performances for in vitro tissue cultures. To highlight these benefits a series of examples are provided.