A naturally derived, cytocompatible, and architecturally optimized scaffold for tendon and ligament regeneration

Role of tissue engineering in tendon reconstructive surgery and regenerative medicine: Current concepts, approaches and concerns

“…Generally, they can be divided into three major groups including biological (natural), synthetic and hybrid materials 12,41,42 . Biological materials such as collagen, elastin, gelatin, chitosan, albumin, alginate, fibrin and chondroitin sulphate have been shown to be effective in tendon healing 36,40,43,44 . Actually, these materials are biocompatible and biodegradable…”

“…Therefore, there are several factors that have an impact on the effectiveness of the scaffold in this regard including the molecule(s) from which the scaffold is manufactured (basic material of the scaffold), architecture of the scaffold, diameter and orientation of the fibres, their biological characteristics and the amount of free spaces and pore size 5,16 . There are also a numbers of other issues that should be considered in manufacturing a scaffold 12 ; for example, a suitable scaffold for tendon tissue engineering should be cytocompatible in vitro and biocompatible and biodegradable in vivo 5,16,33,36,37 . Unfortunately, most of the exogenousbased biomaterials for tendon repair have serious limitations, such as lower capacity for inducing cell proliferation and differentiation (tenoinductivity), poor biocompatibility and remodelling potentials (tenoconductivity) 16,33,38 .…”

“…Mature tendons are composed of more than 90% type I collagen 1 . This molecule has an excellent physical property and in vivo activity, and its production is not expensive 36 . It can be easily formed into any shape and architecture, and is equipped with most of the healing promotive factors 36 .…”

“…This molecule has an excellent physical property and in vivo activity, and its production is not expensive 36 . It can be easily formed into any shape and architecture, and is equipped with most of the healing promotive factors 36 . Elastin is also present in tendons in a much less proportion (about 1%) and its major application in tissue engineering is to produce vascular scaffolds 12,17 .…”

Macrophage Participation in the Degradation and Remodeling of Extracellular Matrix Scaffolds

“…[16][17][18][19][20] There is convincing evidence that hostmediated degradation of ECM scaffolds is typically completed within 8-12 weeks and is necessary to realize the full beneficial effects of ECM-mediated tissue remodeling, [21][22][23] but the mechanisms by which such scaffold degradation occurs have been largely ignored.…”