Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering - Biodegradable Polymer-Based Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Engineering - page 1

Chapter 1
Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering
Abstract The aim of tissue engineering is to develop cell, construct, and
living system technologies to restore the structures and functions of damaged
or degenerated tissues. Surgical strategies that have evolved to deal with tissue
loss include organ transplantation from one individual to another, tissue trans-
fer from a healthy site to an affected site in the same individual, and replace-
ment of tissue functions with synthetic material devices. All of these strategies
have limitations. Organ transplantation is not always feasible as the number of
organ donors is far less than the number of patients waiting for organ transplan-
tation. The complications of immuno-suppressive agents are also trouble for the
organ recipients. Tissue engineering (TE) seeks to provide a new solution to tis-
sue loss. Scaffolds with porous microstructures are commonly used in TE. This
chapter reviews and reports the TE strategy, requirements of scaffolds in TE, as
well as different biomaterials that are often used to fabricate tissue engineering
scaffolds.
Keywords Bone tissue engineering • Scaffolds • Bone structure • Biomaterials
for scaffolds
1.1 Tissue Engineering
The definition of tissue engineering is “the application of principles and methods
of engineering and the life sciences toward fundamental understanding of struc-
ture-function relationships in normal and pathological mammalian tissue and the
development of biological substitutes that restore, maintain, or improve tissue
function” (Bell 1993 ). In terms of its goals, tissue engineering can be considered
as following: (1) providing cellular prostheses or replacement parts for the human
body; (2) providing acellular replacement parts capable of inducing regeneration;
(3) providing tissue or organ-like model systems populated with cells for basic
research and for many applied uses such as the study of disease states using aber-
rant cells; (4) providing vehicles for delivering engineered cells to the organism,
and (5) providing surfacing non-biological devices (Bell 1993 ).