Three dimensional (3D) biomaterial microarrays hold enormous promise for regenerative medicine because of their ability to accelerate the design and fabrication of biomimetic materials. Such tissue-like biomaterials can provide an appropriate microenvironment for stimulating and controlling stem cell differentiation into tissue-specific lineages. The use of 3D biomaterial microarrays can, if optimized correctly, result in a more than 1000-fold reduction in biomaterials and cells consumption when engineering optimal materials combinations, which makes these miniaturized systems very attractive for tissue engineering and drug screening applications.
Keywords: 3D microarrays; 3D printing; biomaterials; microfabrication; tissue engineering.
© 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.