Actuality and challenge of biomaterials in annulus fibrosus repair / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:Recently,tissue-engineered biomaterials for annulus fibrosus repair in the treatment of intervertebral disc degeneration have aroused wide attentions.OBJECTIVE:To investigate the research progress in biomaterials for the repair of annulus fibrosus in intervertebral disc tissue engineering.METHODS:PubMed database (1991-2017) was retrieved by the first author with the key words of "intervertebral disc,annulus fibrosus,material,scaffold" to search relevant articles about the use of biomaterials in annulus fibrosus repair.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Biomaterials play important roles in annulus fibrosus repair,which mainly function to recover the physical structure and mechanical function of the annulus fibrosus by promoting extracellular matrix secretion and tissue regeneration.Current materials mainly used for the repair of annulus fibrosus include natural materials,polymer materials,and biomaterials.Natural materials have good biocompatibility,biodegradability and no cytotoxicity,but their mechanical strength is poor.Polymer materials which overcome the lack of mechanical strength have repeatability,controllability,no immunogenicity,and are easy to be processed,but they have poor biocompatibility and cell affinity,as compared with the natural materials.Therefore,the selection of composite materials by integrating the advantages of different materials becomes the main trend in the annulus fibrosus repair.