Impact of nanotechnology on 3D bioprinting

Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting is an additive manufacturing technique that have shown tremendous potential in fabricating customized patient-specific tissue scaffolds and medical devices for various biomedical applications, in particular, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Owing to its new capabilities such as high speed, fine resolution and design specificity, this evolving technology has excited various fields of biomedical engineering as well as translational medicine. In the recent years, the combination of nanotechnological principles and nanomaterials with 3D bioprinting techniques has shown tremendous increase in the clinical efficacy of 3D bioprinted tissue engineered scaffolds. Nanotechnological approach and nanomaterials due to their high surface area to volume ratios and quantum confinement effects, shows unique physical, chemical and biological properties. However, on combining nanomaterials with 3D bioprinting techniques improved 3D bioprinted scaffolds with enhanced physicochemical as well as biological properties have been fabricated. In this article, we discuss briefly about the impact of nanotechnology, and nanomaterials, on 3D bioprinted tissue engineered scaffolds for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications.