The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (American). 2008;90:36-42.
doi:10.2106/JBJS.G.01260
© 2008 The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Inc.
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Letters to the Editor: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when Letters to the Editor are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow E-mail this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Khan, Y.
Right arrow Articles by Laurencin, C. T.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Khan, Y.
Right arrow Articles by Laurencin, C. T.
Related Collections
Right arrow Basic Science
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Technorati  
What's this?

Tissue Engineering of Bone: Material and Matrix Considerations

Yusuf Khan, PhD, Michael J. Yaszemski, MD, PhD, Antonios G. Mikos, PhD and Cato T. Laurencin, MD, PhD

Corresponding author:
Cato T. Laurencin, MD, PhD
University of Virginia School of Medicine, 400 Ray C. Hunt Drive, Charlottesville, VA 22908.
E-mail address: Laurencin{at}virginia.edu

Disclosure: The authors did not receive any outside funding or grants in support of their research for or preparation of this work. Neither they nor a member of their immediate families received payments or other benefits or a commitment or agreement to provide such benefits from a commercial entity. No commercial entity paid or directed, or agreed to pay or direct, any benefits to any research fund, foundation, division, center, clinical practice, or other charitable or nonprofit organization with which the authors, or a member of their immediate families, are affiliated or associated.

When the normal physiologic reaction to fracture does not occur, such as in fracture nonunions or large-scale traumatic bone injury, surgical intervention is warranted. Autografts and allografts represent current strategies for surgical intervention and subsequent bone repair, but each possesses limitations, such as donor-site morbidity with the use of autograft and the risk of disease transmission with the use of allograft. Synthetic bone-graft substitutes, developed in an effort to overcome the inherent limitations of autograft and allograft, represent an alternative strategy. These synthetic graft substitutes, or matrices, are formed from a variety of materials, including natural and synthetic polymers, ceramics, and composites, that are designed to mimic the three-dimensional characteristics of autograft tissue while maintaining viable cell populations. Matrices also act as delivery vehicles for factors, antibiotics, and chemotherapeutic agents, depending on the nature of the injury to be repaired. This intersection of matrices, cells, and therapeutic molecules has collectively been termed tissue engineering. Depending on the specific application of the matrix, certain materials may be more or less well suited to the final structure; these include polymers, ceramics, and composites of the two. Each category is represented by matrices that can form either solid preformed structures or injectable forms that harden in situ. This article discusses the myriad design considerations that are relevant to successful bone repair with tissue-engineered matrices and provides an overview of several manufacturing techniques that allow for the actualization of critical design parameters.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?