Advancements and frontiers in nano-based 3D and 4D scaffolds for bone and cartilage tissue engineering

Abstract

Given the enormous increase in the risks of bone and cartilage defects with the rise in the aging population, the current treatments available are insufficient for handling this burden, and the supply of donor organs for transplantation is limited. Therefore, tissue engineering is a promising approach for treating such defects. Advances in materials research and high-tech optimized fabrication of scaffolds have increased the efficiency of tissue engineering. Electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds and hydrogel scaffolds mimic the native extracellular matrix of bone, providing a support for bone and cartilage tissue engineering by increasing cell viability, adhesion, propagation, and homing, and osteogenic isolation and differentiation, vascularization, host integration, and load bearing. The use of these scaffolds with advanced three- and four-dimensional printing technologies has enabled customized bone grafting. In this review, we discuss the different approaches used for cartilage and bone tissue engineering.

Keywords:

• tissue engineering
• extracellular matrix
• bioprinting
• biomaterials

Acknowledgments

Although we are the authors of this review, we would never have been able to complete it without the great contribution of many people in the field of cardiac and vascular tissue engineering. We owe our gratitude to all those researchers who have made this review possible. We have cited as many references as permitted and apologize to the authors of those publications that we have not cited due to limitations of space. We apologize to other authors who have worked on these aspects but whom we have unintentionally overlooked. All figures were originally drawn/edited for this article. This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIP) (number NRF-2017R1A2B4008179). This work was also supported by grants from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2017R1C1B5017159) and the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (HI18C0661).

Disclosure

Prof Dr Dong Sik Chae reports grants from National Research Foundation of Korea and the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea, during the conduct of study. The authors report no other conflicts of interest in this work.