19 - Scaffolds for tissue engineering

Abstract

Publisher Summary All present-day orthopedic implants lack three of the most critical characteristics of living tissues: (1) the ability to self-repair; (2) the ability to maintain a blood supply; and (3) the ability to modify their structure and properties in response to environmental factors such as mechanical load. All implants have a limited lifespan and, as life expectancy is continually increasing, it is proposed that a shift in emphasis from replacement of tissues to regeneration of tissues is required to satisfy this growing need for very long-term orthopedic repair. Tissue engineering was introduced as the growth of tissue-like construct in the laboratory, ready for implantation to regenerate a diseased or damaged tissue to its original state and function. It is a multi-disciplinary field that involves cell and molecular biology, materials science, chemical and mechanical engineering, chemistry, and physics. There is the potential for stem cells to be extracted from a patient, seeded on a scaffold of the desired architecture in vitro , where they will be given the biological signals to proliferate and differentiate, and the tissue will grow, ready for implantation. This chapter focuses on the development of such scaffolds and discusses how the materials used should be tailored for the regeneration of specific tissues. In any scaffold application, the material choice and design is important.