Synergistic 3D bioprinting and electrical stimulation for advanced electroactive tissue regeneration

Severe tissue injuries often disrupt the body’s endogenous electric fields, making spontaneous healing nearly impossible. Although exogenous electrical stimulation (ES) is an effective intervention, conventional rigid electrodes are mechanically and geometrically incompatible with soft, dynamic biological tissues. To address this problem, three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting with conductive bioinks has emerged as a transformative strategy to create biomimetic, electroactive scaffolds. This review explores how combining 3D‑printed scaffolds with ES promotes complex tissue regeneration. We first analyze the core cellular mechanisms by which ES accelerates tissue repair (e.g., guiding cell migration, enhancing proliferation and directing differentiation). We then summarize the mainstream 3D printing techniques (extrusion-based, inkjet, laser-assisted, photocuring-based printing) and detail the development of conductive bioinks from basic polymers to advanced electroactive materials, including piezoelectric, triboelectric, magnetoelectric, bio‑battery, and optoelectronic materials for wireless stimulation. This synergistic strategy has been widely used to repair various tissue defects, including skin, nerve, bone, muscle and cardiac tissue injuries, and shows considerable therapeutic promise. Finally, we discuss ongoing clinical hurdles and offer a practical roadmap toward programmable scaffolds and closed-loop systems. Overall, this field is rapidly shifting from passive structural support to active electrophysiological guidance, laying the foundation for next-generation smart tissues.