Common fabrication technology of the scaffolds for cartilage tissue engineering / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

With the development of cartilage tissue engineering, how to achieve an ideal scaffold has become the difficult and hot spot in this study field. The scaffold for cartilage tissue engineering should provide with some special physical and biochemical properties, such as excellent biocompatibility, proper biodegradability, controlled porosity, adequate pore size and so on. Such properties are closely related to two factors, one is the materials used for scaffolds, the other is the fabrication technology. This review is concentrated on the present common fabrication technologies of three-dimensional porous scaffolds, and mainly introduces the following technologies solvent casting/particulate leaching, phase separation/freeze-drying, hydrogels, gas foaming, electrospinning and rapid prototyping manufacturing. Those fabrication technologies' effects on structure and properties of scaffolds have been compared to summarize and analyze the advantages and disadvantages of every fabrication technology, and simultaneously prospect the developing tendency of fabrication technology in cartilage tissue engineering.