The manufacture of biorobots using 3D bioprinting paves the way for the development of robust medical devices with tailor-made architecture and functionalities. In the case of printing semi-solid or semi-cast materials (gels, pastes) at room or high temperature using an extrusion process, some changes have been introduced in the construction of the print head compared to FDM. The 3D printing of stimulus-sensitive materials has also been investigated in terms of thermosensitive hydrogels, since they can be used to create drug delivery systems that release the active compound when thermally activated in the first stage of inflammation. The printed models were tested with medical imaging modalities, such as magnetic resonance imaging and 2D and 3D ultrasound.
To evaluate the possibility of applying photopolymer resins in 3D drug printing, tablets were prepared with ropinirole HCl, poly (ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) and Irgacure 2959 as a photoinitiator in an environment with a low oxygen content, which may inhibit cure transformations. 3D printing has become one of the most revolutionary and powerful tools that serves as a technology for precise manufacturing of individually developed dosage forms, tissue engineering and disease modeling. 3D printing methods are becoming important in the field of pharmaceutical and medical applications because of the possibility of quickly preparing tailor-made objects that can be applied in personalized therapy or medicine. The undeniable benefits of 3D printing are highlighted, however, a critical view derived from the limitations and challenges of additive manufacturing is also included.
As highlighted in the FDA document, due to the variability of additive manufacturing methods, it is not possible to provide a universal set of guidelines for all 3D printing methods. The manufacture of implants and prostheses using additive manufacturing has recently revolutionized the area of medical device development to meet the growing demand for personalized therapy. Considering that a tablet is often printed for more than 1 minute, the effectiveness of such a method is very limited. The 3D printing of drugs in patient centers is intensively debated in scientific communities, but additive manufacturing techniques are still quite new to society and the vision that patients will print their medicines in their own homes is quite a distant prospect.
The print head moves along the X and Y axes during printing, and the bed of the printing platform descends along the Z axis according to the height of the layer after the deposition of each layer of the material (Fig. The most important achievements of 3D printing in pharmaceutical and biomedical applications are presented in the figure. The introduction of 3D printing in the pharmaceutical industry as a standard manufacturing method is still a long way off today, mainly due to the lack of ready-to-use production equipment. 3D microextrusion printing was used to manufacture microchannels for axonal alignment and compartmentalized chambers for cell isolation.
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