Vascularization in Bone Tissue Engineering: Physiology, Current Strategies, Major Hurdles and Future Challenges

✍ Scribed by Marina I. Santos; Rui L. Reis

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 511 KB
• Volume: 10
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1616-5187
• DOI: 10.1002/mabi.200900107

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The lack of a functional vascular supply has, to a large extent, hampered the whole range of clinical applications of ‘successful’ laboratory‐based bone tissue engineering strategies. To the present, grafts have been dependent on post‐implant vascularization, which jeopardizes graft integration and often leads to its failure. For this reason, the development of strategies that could effectively induce the establishment of a microcirculation in the engineered constructs has become a major goal for the tissue engineering research community. This review addresses the role and importance of the development of a vascular network in bone tissue engineering and provides an overview of the most up to date research efforts to develop such a network.

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