AccScience Publishing / IJB / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/IJB025460474
REVIEW ARTICLE
Early Access

3D bioprinting-driven strategies for tissue regeneration and controlled immune modulation

Jianfeng Zhang1† Fujia Ren2† Fangtian Bu3 Yao Yao4* Mengmeng Li1*
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1 Department of Pharmacy, Tongde Hospital of Zhejiang Province Affiliated to Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China
2 Department of Pharmacy, Hangzhou Women’s Hospital, Hangzhou, China
3 College of Pharmacy, School of Medicine, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 311121, China.
4 Department of Pharmacy, Women’s Hospital School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310006, China
†These authors contributed equally to this work.
Received: 13 November 2025 | Accepted: 12 December 2025 | Published online: 18 December 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

Tissue loss, fibrosis-prone repair, and immune-mediated graft failure remain persistent obstacles in regenerative medicine. Within this context, 3D bioprinting is shifting from structure-centric fabrication to a platform for programmed immune modulation. This review synthesizes evidence across materials, architecture, and living components to delineate how bioprinted constructs can steer host responses toward resolution and durable function. We first examine events at the blood–biomaterial interface, including protein corona formation, complement–coagulation crosstalk, and leukocyte recruitment, and map them to tunable parameters such as chemistry, stiffness, degradability, topography, and pore geometry that direct macrophage and dendritic-cell programs. We compare natural and synthetic bioinks, emphasizing printability windows, batch control, and impurity management as prerequisites for interpretable immunological readouts. We survey stimuli-responsive inks triggered by pH, reactive oxygen species, enzymes, light, or magnetic fields to deliver cytokines, chemokines, and metabolites with temporal precision, and highlight architected lattices and gradients that guide cell trafficking, vascular and lymphatic integration, and mechano-immune conditioning. Cell- and signal-centric strategies include immune–stromal co-printing, extracellular vesicle embedding, membrane cloaking for immune stealth or targeting, and synthetic circuits that sense inflammation and secrete immunoregulatory payloads. Finally, we identify translational bottlenecks and outline opportunities in 4D bioprinting, AI-assisted design, digital twins, and in situ printing. Treating immunity as a primary design variable is essential for predictable, durable, and clinically credible bioprinted therapies.

Keywords
3D bioprinting
Immunomodulation
Bioinks
Foreign body response
Macrophage polarization
Regenerative medicine
Funding
Not applicable.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
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International Journal of Bioprinting, Electronic ISSN: 2424-8002 Print ISSN: 2424-7723, Published by AccScience Publishing