Bioprinting is steadily progressing toward its ambitious goal of creating functional, transplantable tissues and organs. While researchers around the world are focused on printing hearts, cartilage, and other complex body parts, a team from Korea’s Pusan National University has made a crucial advancement in a less flashy—but medically vital—area: 3D printing adipose tissue, commonly known as fat. Their findings, published in Advanced Functional Materials, could mark a major leap forward in wound healing and skin regeneration.
Although printing fat tissue might not sound revolutionary at first glance, adipose tissue plays a critical role in the body. It’s found throughout the body as visceral fat protecting organs, in bones, and under the skin as subcutaneous fat. More importantly, fat is a major component of healthy skin and essential to the body’s natural wound-healing processes. That makes it an ideal target for bioprinting research focused on skin repair—particularly for treating severe burns.
The Pusan research team developed a hybrid bioink by combining a decellularized extracellular matrix with alginate, achieving an optimized ratio of 1% adipose to 0.5% alginate. This combination allowed them to print adipose tissue that closely mimicked natural tissue and lipid structures. After fine-tuning the printing parameters, the team determined that tissue diameters of 600 micrometers or smaller, spaced no more than 1,000 micrometers apart, provided the best results for tissue integration and healing potential.
Their results showed significant promise. In lab tests, the printed tissue stimulated skin cell migration by regulating the expression of key proteins linked to cell movement. When tested on mice, the printed adipose structures accelerated wound healing through enhanced re-epithelialization (the regeneration of skin layers), tissue remodeling, and blood vessel formation. These findings suggest the bioprinted fat not only supports but actively promotes skin regeneration.
This development could have powerful implications for wound care, especially for burn victims. Currently, treatment options for severe burns remain limited, with painful and frequent dressing changes that often slow recovery. There are no truly long-lasting, effective skin graft substitutes or wound dressings on the market. A next-generation dressing made with bioprinted adipose tissue could drastically improve the healing process by reducing pain, shortening recovery times, and minimizing the number of interventions needed.
The potential applications go beyond basic wound coverage. Even partial skin regeneration using bioprinted adipose could significantly aid burn recovery—unlike other complex organs like eyes or hearts, where anything short of full function limits usability. In contrast, skin that can regrow and repair itself, even partially, could offer lifesaving support.
The urgency for such innovations is clear. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), someone is severely burned every five seconds, totaling around 11 million people each year. A staggering 95% of these cases occur in developing countries, and more than 300,000 people die annually from fire-related injuries. The demand for effective, accessible skin regeneration solutions is both massive and immediate.
While skin may not seem as medically dramatic as a beating heart, it is one of the body’s most complex and dynamic systems—constantly regenerating and protecting us from infection, injury, and dehydration. Damage to this barrier can be life-threatening, and tools that support faster, more effective healing are desperately needed.
The work by the Pusan National University team represents a significant step forward—not just in the field of bioprinting, but in global healthcare. Their innovation could help create affordable, scalable treatments for millions of burn victims around the world, potentially changing the landscape of wound care and reconstructive medicine.
By Impact Lab
