Scaffolds for Articular Cartilage Repair

Abstract

Tissue engineering of articular cartilage seeks to restore the damaged joint surface, inducing repair of host tissues by delivering repair cells, genes, or polypeptide stimulatory factors to the site of injury. A plethora of devices and materials are being examined for their potential to deliver these agents to wound sites, and to act as scaffolds for ingrowth of new tissue. This review will discuss various promising scaffolds for cartilage tissue engineering applications.

Influence of a novel calcium-phosphate coating on the mechanical properties of highly porous collagen scaffolds for bone repair

“…In order for a scaffold to be successful in bone tissue engineering, a trade-off between sufficient mechanical properties and a porosity and permeability high enough to allow cell migration, tissue formation and angiogenesis is required (Frenkel et al 2004, O'Brien et al 2007. The objective of this study was to develop a collagen/calcium-phosphate composite scaffold with optimal properties for bone tissue engineering by coating a highly porous collagen scaffold with calcium-phosphate.…”

“…Consequently, collagen scaffolds have been used for many years in various in vitro and in vivo studies in skin regeneration (Yannas et al 1989), cartilage repair (Sellers et al 2000) and many other tissues (Frenkel et al 2004). However, pure collagen scaffolds possess insufficient mechanical properties for bone TE (Angele et al 2004.…”

Binding and Release Characteristics of Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 from a Collagen–Glycosaminoglycan Scaffold

“…1,7,8 Scaffold microstructure, which can be characterized by porosity, mean pore size, interconnectivity, and specific surface area, significantly affects cell adhesion and proliferation. 9 Ideally, the scaffold should also mimic cell-ECM interactions and provide adequate signals to cells via the ECM and growth factors to induce or maintain a desired state of cell differentiation to aid tissue regeneration.…”

Tissue Engineering for Tissue and Organ Regeneration

“…The optimal scaffold used for engineering a cartilage construct with accurate designed shapes should possess at least three characteristics: good biocompatibility for cartilage formation, ease of being processed into a specific shape, and sufficient mechanical strength for retaining the pre-designed shape during chondrogenesis. Polyglycolic acid (PGA) has proven to be one of the most successful scaffolds for cartilage regeneration (Cui et al, 2009;Frenkel, Di, 2004;Heath, Magari, 1996). Cartilage engineered with the PGA scaffold has structure and composition similar to the native tissue, as demonstrated by histological analysis and cartilage specific matrices (Aufderheide, Athanasiou, 2005;Moran et al, 2003;Yan et al, 2009).…”