While ceramic and glass scaffolds are still used in some bone and cartilage engineering, currently the most widely-used scaffold materials are polymers, or chains of molecules that interact chemically to form a substance. Many different materials have been used in the development of this technology, including metals, calcium phosphate ceramics, glass, and silk proteins. These biological scaffolds have shown to decrease immune system rejection and increase regenerative success, making them the next great technological development in tissue engineering. Rather than a composition of polymer blends, new “biological scaffolds” use collagen fibers derived from either animal or human donors that can assemble spontaneously into scaffold structures. While these polymeric scaffolds have proven applicable in the above-mentioned fields, recent research suggests improvements on the current technology. Such scaffolds are currently used in the regeneration of cartilage, bone, and elements of the cardiovascular system, with some electrically-conductive scaffolds even tailored for neural repairs. When these two elements are combined and inserted into the patient, tissue repair occurs through cellular proliferation. When constructing scaffolds for implementation, two elements are necessary: a cell-growth base derived from a tissue culture and the biodegradable, polymer-based scaffold itself. The ability of scaffolds to be strong yet flexible further increases their application versatility. ![]() These 3-dimensional, porous structures are perfectly suited for cellular attachment and growth due to their physical similarities to the native extracellular matrix. The field of tissue engineering has seen significant improvements in the past 10 years, much of which is due to the development of tissue scaffolds.
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