Scaffold Design for Bone Tissue Engineering: From Micrometric to Nanometric Level - Biologically Responsive Biomaterials for Tissue Engineering - page 1

Chapter 1
Scaffold Design for Bone Tissue Engineering:
From Micrometric to Nanometric Level

Vincenzo Guarino , Maria Grazia Raucci , Marco A. Alvarez-Perez ,
Valentina Cirillo , Alfredo Ronca , and Luigi Ambrosio

1.1 Introduction

In the natural bone tissue, the ability to sustain characteristic loads is guaranteed
either by a tailored hierarchical structure at the micrometer and sub-micrometer
scale or by a well-defined chemical composition. In this context, programmed bio-
mechanical properties need to be satisfied since the load bearing function has to be
transferred from the engineered material to the growing of the mineralized extracel-
lular matrix (mECM) [ 13 ] .
In detail, bone tissue is organized into microstructural composites based on the
interdigitation of collagen—the most prevalent biopolymer in the body—and an
inorganic substance composed of apatitic mineral crystals. The high complexity
degree of intrinsic properties of the natural tissues imposes the need to define
appropriate strategies for the design of 3-D scaffolds with tailored properties,
adapted to be effective in tissue engineering applications. In this context, scaffold
design to repair hard tissues such as bone may be complex. Indeed, the primary
function of a bone substitute has to be the capability of supporting loads adequately.
In that case, the scaffold should not only be a highly porous structure, able to guide
novel tissue formation in 3-D space, but also it should have sufficient mechanical
strength to offer adequate structural support. Furthermore, it should be able to
progressively stimulate new bone growth, by the selective degradation of the polymer
phases, resulting, at the end, in a native bone tissue without any trace of the scaffold.
As a consequence, scaffolds have to combine several structural and functional prop-
erties through an appropriate selection of constituent materials in order to adapt the

V. Guarino ( * ) • M. G. Raucci • M. A. Alvarez-Perez • V. Cirillo • A. Ronca • L. Ambrosio
Institute of Composite and Biomedical Materials, National Research Council,
P.le Tecchio 80 , Naples 80125 , Italy
e-mail: [e-mail] ; [e-mail] ; [e-mail] ;
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