RESUMO
BACKGROUND: 3D bioprinting is one of 3D printing technologies. Its characteristics are to plant biological materials or living cells in specific location to construct tissues and organs with complete biological functions. Until now, 3D bioprinting has been used to successfully produce various biological scaffolds, including bone tissue. In recent years, 3D bioprinting technology develops rapidly, which provides good prospects to regeneration and repair using tissue-engineered bone. OBJECTIVE: To systemically introduce 3D bioprinting, to briefly clarify its fundamental principles, to summarize its current mainstream molding technologies and materials as well as their application in bone tissue engineering, and to discuss current bottleneck of 3D bioprinting in bone tissue engineering, providing reference for the development of regenerative medicine. METHODS: We searched CNKI, WanFang, PubMed databases for relevant articles published from 2005 to 2017. The keywords were "3D bioprinting, 3D bioprinted, bioink, bone tissue engineering, scaffold" in Chinese and English, respectively. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: 3D bioprinting technology develops rapidly, which provides good prospect for future bone repair and transplantation. However, there are still several deficiencies, such as expensive printing equipment, laggard technology, strict requirements for bio-ink and medical team cooperation. Therefore, only depending on constant innovation in technological levels and material development, can 3D bioprinting make a further leap.