Materials selection and scaffold fabrication for tissue engineering in orthopedics

Tissue engineering of bone, articular cartilage, etc., in the orthopaedic field has been one of the main focuses of research ever since the discipline of tissue engineering emerged nearly 20 years ago, and yet great efforts are still needed to develop clinically usable tissue-engineered bone or cartilage for the general public. In this chapter, with our own experience in research on bone tissue engineering, candidate materials, scaffold fabrication technologies and strategies for developing bone tissue engineering scaffolds are reviewed and some important influencing factors are analyzed. Polymer-based biodegradable composite scaffolds appear to have great potential in bone tissue engineering. The successful scaffold fabrication technologies will be those that can produce good-quality scaffolds which are also of consistent quality. The capability of the technology to produce scaffolds in relatively large quantities at a reasonable cost is another important consideration. The selection of scaffold material(s) and scaffold production technology must be considered together when one embarks on developing tissue engineering scaffolds.