The evolution towards increasingly automated procedures in every aspect of scientific research has also had repercussions on the generation of 3D cell models, with the affirmation of bioprinting techniques.
Bioprinting consists of printing through the layer-on-layer deposition of biomaterials and biomolecules for the formation of 3D structures of tissues or organs that reproduce the structure of the tissue or organ in humans.
In the primordial stages of their development and application, the generation of 3D cell models was based on manual protocols which, in addition to being long and laborious, had limitations deriving from a low resolution of the ratio between the volume of gel used as support and the number of cells. used for the formation of 3D structures, as well as by an inadequate reproducibility and, in the case of co-cultures, by the absence of control of the physical distance between cells of different types.
Bioprinting technologies find application in tissue engineering (TE or tissue engineering), through the development of technologies controlled by specific softwares for the construction of customized structures at different size scales.
bioprinting technologies have been and are used for the development of in vitro models aimed at the characterization of molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying physiological and pathological conditions, as well as the metabolism of drugs for the characterization of side effects in the pre-clinical phase.
