Features and Strategies for Scaffold Design and Production for Tissue Engineering

Abstract

Failure or loss of human tissues and organs due to illness or injury requires the partial or even total transplantation. Although transplantation is a successful intervention, donor availability and immune rejections represent still the main drawbacks. In addition, the fast and proper recovery of the patient is nowadays more than necessary to prevent infection, chronic inflammation, and other complications during the tissue/organ healing process. There is still a tremendous interest of alternatives to transplantation, such as scaffold-based tissue engineering, that may contribute to practical outcomes for the worldwide health concern related to severe tissue injuries. Herein, we explore the features, benefits and scaffold designs applied for biotechnological sciences, particularly for tissue engineering. The great potential to transform biocompatible polymers in three-dimensional matrix, assimilating the extracellular matrix (ECM), makes them attractive for cells adhesion and proliferation. On the basic of relevant results recently reported in the literature, along with the pioneering works, we discuss specific issues and challenges such as matrix-cell interactions, strategies to design scaffolds with homogeneous nano/microscales using different techniques, e.g., hydrogels, electrospinning, and rotary jet spinning, as well as the combination of some of these techniques.