Tissue Engineering

Abstract

AbstractTissue engineering, still in its infancy, has shown great promise in developing novel therapies to tissue losses and organ failures. Scaffolds play a pivotal role in tissue engineering. Biodegradable polymers are the primary choice of materials for tissue engineering scaffolds. In this article, the principles of tissue engineering are discussed in relation to polymer science and engineering. The most frequently used polymers in tissue engineering are briefly reviewed. These include synthetic and natural polymers for porous scaffolds and hydrogel scaffolds. Their structure and important properties in relation to scaffold function are discussed. Important polymer processing techniques in the context of scaffold fabrication are also reviewed. These include the textile technologies, particulate‐leaching techniques, phase separation techniques, rapid prototyping, and other novel 3‐D fabrication techniques.