FIG. 5.

Advances in fabrication techniques for tissue engineering. (A) Three-dimensional printing and electric-field-assisted techniques can be very useful for 3D construction of tissue defects (1) based on data-derived from imaging such as computed tomography (2), which is transferred to a design template for 3D bioprinting (4), to produce living constructs (5) that are transplanted to bridge defects and heal damaged tissue (6). (B) In 3D printing (1–3), layer-by-layer deposition of polymeric gel results in the formation of predesigned 3D constructs. In the electric-field-assisted technique (5–6), an electric field is used to control for directing and depositing polymeric fibers. In melt-electrospinning writing (4), both 3D printing and electric-field-assisted methods are combined. Created with Biorender.com. Color images are available online.