Supercritical fluids in biomedical and tissue engineering applications : a review

摘要

Over the past several years, the definition of a scaffold for tissue engineering has changeddramatically, from a material that acts only as an inert structural support for cell attachment toserving as a more complex and dynamic environment for tissue development. This paper is areview on the existing and on the new emerging techniques based on supercritical fluidtechnology for the preparation of scaffolds and particles for tissue engineering applications.Supercritical fluid technology has already proven to be feasible for many pharmaceuticalapplications and is now emerging as an alternative to conventional materials’ processing methodsfor the preparation of three-dimensional structures and injectable particles suitable to be used inregenerative medicine. The basic principles underlying each technique are here presented aswell as the advantages and disadvantages of each process. The state of the art is reviewed andthe major conclusions of the studies reported in the literature are discussed