The Role of Biodegradable Engineered Scaffold in Tissue Engineering - Biomaterials Science and Engineering - page 153

7
The Role of Biodegradable
Engineered Scaffold in Tissue Engineering
Ghassem Amoabediny 1,2 , Nasim Salehi-Nik 1,2 and Bentolhoda Heli 1,2
1 Department of Biomedical Engineering, Research Centre for New Technologies in Life
Science Engineering, University of Tehran,
2 Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Tehran,
Iran
1. Introduction
Tissue engineering is fundamentally described as the generation of three-dimensional (3D)
artificial tissues. Its consequential task is to regenerate human tissue or to develop cell-based
substitutes in order to restore, reconstruct or improve tissue functions (Pörtner et al., 2005;
Ellis, 2005). Proper processing of biological and mechanical functionality is monumental for
tissue engineered structures, the ones which are not mainly sufficient enough yet. Acquiring
the solution for this problem demands intensive researches and studies in every aspects and
steps of TE (Sengers et al., 2007). As a matter of fact, creating a functional tissue requires
efficient growth of various types of cells on a 3D scaffolds and the bulk production of one
cell seems not to be adequate (Ellis et al., 2005).
The principal function of a scaffold is to direct cell behavior such as migration, proliferation,
differentiation, maintenance of phenotype, and apoptosis by facilitating sensing and
responding to the environment via cell-matrix and cell-cell communications (Tabesh et al.,
2009). Therefore, having such abilities provides scaffolds seeded with a special type of cell as
an important part of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. The scaffold design and
fabrication are major areas of biomaterial research, since biomaterial scaffold can create
substrate within which cells are instructed to form a tissue or an organ in a highly controlled
way. In this chapter, it is tried to provide an inclusive survey of biopolymers to be used as
scaffolds for tissue engineering, fabrication methods and engineering challenges such as
mass transfer and mechanical strength. In the proceeding, these factors are reviewed in
vascular and nerve systems.
2. Scaffold considerations
2.1 Requirements of appropriate scaffold materials for tissue engineering
Scaffold design and fabrication are major areas of biomaterial research and they are also
important areas for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine research. Scaffold
provides the necessary support for cells to proliferate and maintain their differentiated
functions, and its architecture defines the ultimate shape of a new organ.
An ideal scaffold should possess the following characteristics to bring about the desired
biological response (1) the scaffold should possess inter - connecting pores of appropriate