Strategies to direct angiogenesis within scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

Abstract

There is a profound need for orthopaedic grafting strategies due to various trauma and musculoskeletal diseases. Tissue engineering offers a promising avenue to develop viable grafts for bone repair. The transfer of bone tissue engineering strategies to clinical applications is limited by the failure to adequately vascularize scaffolds after implantation. This review focuses on the natural processes for bone and vessel formation as well as the microenvironmental cues and microscale fabrication techniques to properly coordinate these events towards successful vascularization of tissue engineered scaffolds.