Zusammenfassung:
The broad clinical use of synthetic vascular grafts for vascular diseases is limited by their thrombogenicity and low patency rate, especially for vessels with a diameter inferior to 6 mm. Alternatives such as tissue-engineered vascular grafts (TEVGs), have gained increasing interest. Among the different manufacturing approaches, 3D bioprinting presents numerous advantages and enables the fabrication of multi-scale, multi-material, and multicellular tissues with heterogeneous and functional intrinsic structures. Extrusion-, inkjet- and light-based 3D printing techniques have been used for the fabrication of TEVG out of hydrogels, cells, and/or solid polymers. This review discusses the state-of-the-art research on the use of 3D printing for TEVG with a focus on the biomaterials and deposition methods.