Biofabrication Techniques in Regenerative Medicine

Abstract

Biofabrication -- the automated manufacturing of biologically functional constructs from living cells, biomaterials, and bioactive molecules -- is converging with regenerative medicine to create tissues and organs with unprecedented structural fidelity. Extrusion bioprinting deposits cell-laden hydrogel bioinks layer by layer; stereolithographic bioprinting photocrosslinks bioinks with micrometre resolution; inkjet bioprinting ejects picoliter droplets for high-throughput patterning; electrospinning produces nanofibrous scaffolds mimicking extracellular matrix; and decellularisation-recellularisation repurposes donor organ scaffolds with patient-derived cells. Each technique offers distinct resolution, throughput, cell viability, and structural complexity trade-offs. We present the Biofabrication Assessment Framework for Regenerative Medicine (BAFRM), evaluating five biofabrication techniques across four regenerative targets (skin, cartilage, vascularised bone, and cardiac patches). Our Biofabrication Efficacy Score (BES) measures print resolution, cell viability post-fabrication, structural fidelity to native architecture, vascularisation potential, and clinical scalability. Stereolithographic bioprinting achieves the highest BES (0.924) through sub-50-um resolution enabling precise zonal architectures, while decellularisation-recellularisation achieves the highest structural fidelity (0.960) by preserving native extracellular matrix organisation that no additive manufacturing technique can yet replicate.