Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Nov 14;3(4):799-838.
doi: 10.3390/jfb3040799.

Strategic design and fabrication of engineered scaffolds for articular cartilage repair

Zohreh Izadifar  1 , Xiongbiao Chen  2 , William Kulyk  3
Affiliations

Strategic design and fabrication of engineered scaffolds for articular cartilage repair

Zohreh Izadifar et al. J Funct Biomater. .

Abstract

Damage to articular cartilage can eventually lead to osteoarthritis (OA), a debilitating, degenerative joint disease that affects millions of people around the world. The limited natural healing ability of cartilage and the limitations of currently available therapies make treatment of cartilage defects a challenging clinical issue. Hopes have been raised for the repair of articular cartilage with the help of supportive structures, called scaffolds, created through tissue engineering (TE). Over the past two decades, different designs and fabrication techniques have been investigated for developing TE scaffolds suitable for the construction of transplantable artificial cartilage tissue substitutes. Advances in fabrication technologies now enable the strategic design of scaffolds with complex, biomimetic structures and properties. In particular, scaffolds with hybrid and/or biomimetic zonal designs have recently been developed for cartilage tissue engineering applications. This paper reviews critical aspects of the design of engineered scaffolds for articular cartilage repair as well as the available advanced fabrication techniques. In addition, recent studies on the design of hybrid and zonal scaffolds for use in cartilage tissue repair are highlighted.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Principal components and zonal organization of articular cartilage tissue: (A) fibrils of type II collagen, proteoglycan complexes composed of aggrecan and hyaluronan, and chondrocytes cells; (B) zonal chondrocytes; and (C) zonal collagen fibers. ((B) and (C) are reproduced from Buckwalter et al. [17]).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Examples of (A) hydrogel; and (B) solid scaffolds.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Different scaffold structural designs for cartilage tissue engineering: (A) 3D sponge [57]; (B) fibrous [57]; (C) gradient [61]; and (D) woven [46].
Figure 4
Figure 4
Schematic diagram of a 3D plotter additive manufacturing fabrication technique (Image courtesy of Envisiontec GmbH [210]).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Different designs of hybrid scaffolds developed for cartilage TE: (A) PLCL-FG/HA [220,224]; (B) woven PGA/PCL-agarose/fibrin [46]; (C) PLLA-atelocollagen [110]; (D) PLGA-collagen [221]; and (E) PLGA-collagen [214].
Figure 6
Figure 6
Controlled deposition hybrid scaffolds: (A) PCL-electrospun collagen [225]; (B) PCL/PLGA-hydrogel [196]; and (C) PCL-alginate [195].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Moutos F.T., Guilak F. Composite scaffolds for cartilage tissue engineering. J. Biorheol. 2008;45:501–512. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mow V.C., Ratcliffe A., Poole A.R. Cartilage and diarthrodial joints as paradigms for hierarchical materials and structures. Biomaterials. 1992;13:67–97. doi: 10.1016/0142-9612(92)90001-5. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Haleem A.M., Chu C.R. Advances in tissue engineering techniques for articular cartilage repair. Oper. Tech. Orthop. 2010;20:76–89. doi: 10.1053/j.oto.2009.10.004. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gillogly S.D., Voightm M., Blackburn T. Treatment of articular cartilage defects of the knee with autologous chondrocyte implantation. J. Orthop. Sports Phys. Ther. 1998;28:241–251. - PubMed
    1. Athanasiou K.A., Darling E.M., Hu J.C. Articular cartilage tissue engineering. In: Athanasiou K.A. Leach J.K., editor. Synthesis Lectures on Tissue Engineering. 1st. Morgan & Claypool; San Rafael, CA, USA: 2009. pp. 1–182.

LinkOut - more resources