Microfluidics and 3D Printing for Tissue Engineering Applications

Dear Colleagues, 

Tissue engineering is a promising field that aims at the reconstruction of tissues and organs in vitro, regeneration of the damaged body parts, creation of tissue models to study tissue development and physiology, as well as the generation of platforms to test drugs. It is difficult to engineer human-representative, physiologically relevant, anatomical, and functional tissues, because within the body there is a complex network of cell–cell and cell–ECM interactions, involving communication between various types of cells (epithelial, stromal, endothelial, and immune cells) and their microenvironment (ECM, cytokines, and growth factors). Microfluidics and 3D printing are two promising microfabrication techniques that have recently gained a great deal of interest in the biomedical field because of their reproducibility, fast production time, and accuracy. Microfluidics enables the fabrication of microscale tissues and organs and the study of cell behavior under flow conditions. 3D printing provides spatial and temporal control of the type, concentration, and distribution of cells, signaling molecules, and materials, enabling the construction of anatomical structures mimicking the consistency and organization of the native tissues. These two techniques make it possible to create a 3D microenvironment for the cells to mimic the cell–cell and cell–material interactions in the body, which are essential for tissue-level maturity and functionality.

This Special Issue seeks to showcase research papers, short communications, and review articles that focus on the tissue engineering applications of microfluidics and 3D printing, including organs-on-chips, tissue engineering scaffolds, disease models, and drug testing platforms.

Dr. Gokhan Bahcecioglu
Dr. Pinar Zorlutuna
Dr. Pınar Yılgör Huri
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Micromachines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• 3D printing
• bioprinting
• microfluidics
• organs-on-chips
• tissue engineering
• regenerative medicine
• disease models
• drug testing platforms