AccScience Publishing / IJB / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/IJB025430433
REVIEW ARTICLE
Early Access

Advancing bone and cartilage regeneration with 3D printed piezoelectric biomaterials: current progress and future outlook

Zexing Zhang1 Zubing Li1 Gu Cheng2* Zhi Li1*
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1 State Key Laboratory of Oral & Maxillofacial Reconstruction and Regeneration, Key Laboratory of Oral Biomedicine Ministry of Education, Hubei Key Laboratory of Stomatology, School & Hospital of Stomatology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China
2 Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, School and Hospital of Stomatology, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, 325027, China
Received: 21 October 2025 | Accepted: 26 December 2025 | Published online: 19 January 2026
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Additive Manufacturing of Functional Biomaterials-Series2)
© 2026 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

Bone and cartilage defects resulting from trauma, degenerative diseases, or congenital malformations remain a major clinical challenge due to the limited intrinsic healing capacity of these tissues often leads to unsatisfactory outcomes. Piezoelectric biomaterials, which are capable of generating localized electrical signals under mechanical stimulation, have attracted considerable attention as they could mimic the electromechanical microenvironment of native tissues and modulate key cellular processes. However, conventional fabrication strategies were usually failed to meet the personalized requirements of bone and cartilage regeneration. Three-dimensional (3D) printing offers powerful tools for producing patient-specific scaffolds with complex architectures and controlled functionality. In this review, we firstly introduced the piezoelectric properties of the natural bone and cartilage tissue, and then discussed the characteristics of piezoelectric materials in regenerative medicine, with particular emphasis on the advantages and limitations of usage of 3D printing techniques in the fabrication of the piezoelectric biomaterials. Finally, we summarized the recent advances in 3D-printed piezoelectric scaffolds for bone and cartilage regeneration. Consequently, this review highlights the significant potential and practical value of 3D-printed piezoelectric scaffolds as the next generation of osteochondral implants.

Keywords
Piezoelectric biomaterials
3D printing
Biofabrication
Cartilage regeneration
Bone regeneration
Bioactive materials
Funding
This study was partially supported by grants from the following sources: Science and Technology Program for Traditional Chinese Medicine of Zhejiang Province (Grant Nos. 2026ZF67); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos.31870971 and 82170932); Science and Technology Program for Traditional Chinese Medicine of Zhejiang Province (Grant Nos. 2026ZF67); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos.31870971 and 82170932); Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (No.MS26H140002); Basic Scientific Project of Wenzhou Medical University (Grant Nos.KYYW202312); The Summit Advancement Disciplines of Zhejiang Province (Wenzhou Medical University - Pharmaceutics. Basic Scientific Project of Wenzhou Medical University (Grant Nos.KYYW202312); The Summit Advancement Disciplines of Zhejiang Province (Wenzhou Medical University - Pharmaceutics.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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International Journal of Bioprinting, Electronic ISSN: 2424-8002 Print ISSN: 2424-7723, Published by AccScience Publishing