A Review on Commonly Used Scaffolds in Tissue Engineering for Bone Tissue Regeneration

Abstract

Introduction: Bone is one of the tissues that have a true potential for regeneration. However, sometimes the bone defects are so outsized that there is no chance of bone self-repair and restoration or the damage is such that it is not possible to repair with medical or surgical interventions. In these situations, bone grafts are the treatment of choice, but due to several obstacles, including limitation in graft preparation and immunological incompatibility, bone grafts face some limitations. In these cases, with the help of regenerative medicine, the bone damages could be repaired. Regenerative medicine provides a new approach for large bone defects by cell therapy and tissue engineering. As, sometime the damaged tissues are so wide that there is no chance of self-repair, the engineered structures help to accelerate the tissue natural repairing. This review focuses on the importance of stem cells and scaffolding for bone tissue engineering. Also, the important characteristics of bone tissue engineered scaffolds like structure, porosity, stability, surface chemistry, bone induction and different met hods of scaffold fabrication are discussed. Up to now, various natural and synthet ic compounds were used for bone tissue engineering, including biopolymers, which are categorized to natural, synthet ic and ceramics. Bioceramics work as effective compound scaffolds in bone tissue engineering. From them bioglasses are one of the important materials which enhance the attachment, proliferation and differentiation of bone cells. Therefore, the current paper discussed biopolymers, as the effective compounds for regeneration of bone tissue.