Overview on additive manufacturing techniques for scaffold-based cartilage tissue engineering

摘要

Articular cartilage damage is of great concern as it creates discomfort, chronic pain and reduction of joint movement, ultimately leading to Osteoarthritis. To date no definitive treatment has been developed to stop and reverse the disease course, despite the numerous attempts. The resulting healing tissues lack the structural organization of cartilage and consequently have inferior mechanical properties when compared to native hyaline cartilage, therefore being prone to failure. The Tissue Engineering field has long worked on cartilage regeneration and several requirements have been identified for the engineered structures to meet the desired function, by combining biodegradable and biocompatible materials, cells and growth factors, aiming at the production of biological structures closely resembling the native tissue. Within the scaffold based techniques for cartilage tissue production, conventional methods have shown limitations, especially regarding the control over the micro-structure and repeatability of the produced constructs. Therefore, Additive Manufacturing techniques grew popular, allowing for a high level of control over the internal scaffold architecture and external shape of the construct, as well as guaranteeing its reproducibility. Furthermore, by articulating with modern medical imaging techniques, patient tailored structures can be produced. Given the advantages of the latter techniques over conventional ones, an overview of Additive Manufacturing Technique's applied to cartilage tissue engineering and some promising works are presented.