Cell-scaffold interactions in the bone tissue engineering triad

Abstract

Bone tissue engineering has emerged as one of the leading fields in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. The success of bone tissue engineering relies on understanding the interplay between progenitor cells, regulatory signals, and the biomaterials/scaffolds used to deliver themotherwise known as the tissue engineering triad. This review will discuss the roles of these fundamental components with a specific focus on the interaction between cell behaviour and scaffold structural properties. In terms of scaffold architecture, recent work has shown that pore size can affect both cell attachment and cellular invasion. Moreover, different materials can exert different biomechanical forces, which can profoundly affect cellular differentiation and migration in a cell type specific manner. Understanding these interactions will be critical for enhancing the progress of bone tissue engineering towards clinical applications.

Quantification of fluid shear stress in bone tissue engineering scaffolds with spherical and cubical pore architectures

“…Moreover, cells with different attachment types (attached on the struts and bridged across the pores) were found to receive different levels of strain under mechanical compression (Zhao et al 2015). Furthermore, the modelling approach did not incorporate the effect of cell contraction, which was dictated by the mechanical properties of the biomaterial scaffold and influenced osteogenic differentiation (Harley et al 2008;Keogh et al 2010;Murphy et al 2012;Murphy et al 2013). Cell contraction of biomaterial substrates has been modelled using computational approaches for individual cells (Dowling and McGarry 2014;Mullen et al 2015;Mullen et al 2014), but it has not yet been achieved at the level of a three dimensional scaffold due to the computational complexity of this problem.…”

“…Large pore sizes and scaffold porosities have been found to significantly enhance cell attachment, differentiation, proliferation and migration (Haugh et al 2009;Kim et al 2010;Murphy et al 2010;Murphy et al 2013). According to our study, a larger pore size (i.e.…”

Repairing rabbit radial defects by combining bone marrow stroma stem cells with bone scaffold material comprising a core-cladding structure

“…The cells growing on the surface of the scaffold material exhibit different biological activities as a result of differences in hydrophilicity, roughness, etc. (Liundup et al, 2013;Murphy et al, 2013).…”

3D Microporous Scaffolds Manufactured via Combination of Fused Filament Fabrication and Direct Laser Writing Ablation

“…An assortment of small and large pores seems to provide the most benefit for cell growth and proliferation optimization [60]. The interplay between cells and scaffolds (their properties and composition) has shown to influence integrin-ligand interactions, thus affecting cell morphology and differentiation [61]. The local formation of tissue depends on the interaction between cells and the engineered component, which depends on the surface chemistry and topography of the scaffold [62].…”