Bone Tissue Engineering Drug Delivery

Tissue engineering shows the potential to address the growing demand for bone tissue substitutes resulting from trauma, disease, and ageing. The utilization of drugs in combination with tissue engineering strategies has resulted in a new generation of osteoinductive scaffolds which are able to improve the speed and quality of new bone formation. This review briefly describes some of the most recent and innovative advances resulting from the combination of drug delivery methodologies with tissue engineering strategies directed at the regeneration of bone tissue. It describes some of the most commonly utilized drugs as well as some of the strategies most commonly employed to accurately direct the delivery of drugs to specific sites and cells. This review also describes several strategies which enable controlled drug release in response to specific stimuli which can be provided by the surrounding environment or medically induced.