Implantation of stem cells on synthetic or biological scaffolds: an overview of bone regeneration

ABSTRACT

Humans are exposed to a wide range of bone tissue injuries. In severe cases, bone damages could be only treated with transplantation of autologous or allogeneic grafting.

In recent years, tissue engineering has become a promising strategy for repairing damaged organs and tissues, providing a great opportunity to cure several diseases. Bone tissue engineering consists of three components: scaffold, cells, and growth factors. Current bone tissue engineering strategies combine the use of stem cells with biologically active materials and gene therapy to mimic the natural microenvironment of bone. The combination of the scaffold with growth factors and extracellular matrix protein molecules can promote cell attachment, proliferation, and induce osteogenesis, which could provide signals for cell migration to begin the healing process during repair and bone formation.

This article reviews the principles of bone regeneration and the most current developments of bone tissue engineering related to bone growth factors, the biologically active materials, such as bacterial cellulose, and stem cells.

KEYWORDS:

• Bacterial cellulose
• bone tissue engineering
• scaffold
• mesenchymal stem cells
• growth factor

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Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Elahe Vadaye Kheiry

Bibi Sedigheh Fazly Bazzaz is a full professor at School of Pharmacy, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (MUMS), Mashhad, Iran.

Bibi Sedigheh Fazly Bazzaz

Mohammad Amin Kerachian is a clinician and research scientist at Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad, Iran. He is also the research director of Cancer Genetics Research Unit, Reza Radiotherapy and Oncology Center, Mashhad, Iran.

Mohammad Amin Kerachian

Elahe Vadaye Kheiry has a PhD from the Department of Biology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.