title: Prospects of micromass culture technology in tissue engineering.
abstract: Tissue engineering of bone and cartilage tissue for subsequent implantation is of growing interest in cranio- and maxillofacial surgery. Commonly it is performed by using cells coaxed with scaffolds. Recently, there is a controversy concerning the use of artificial scaffolds compared to the use of a natural matrix. Therefore, new approaches called micromass technology have been invented to overcome these problems by avoiding the need for scaffolds. Technically, cells are dissociated and the dispersed cells are then reaggregated into cellular spheres. The micromass technology approach enables investigators to follow tissue formation from single cell sources to organised spheres in a controlled environment. Thus, the inherent fundamentals of tissue engineering are better revealed. Additionally, as the newly formed tissue is devoid of an artificial material, it resembles more closely the in vivo situation. The purpose of this review is to provide an insight into the fundamentals and the technique of micromass cell culture used to study bone tissue engineering.
authors.affiliation: Department for Cranio- and Maxillofacial Surgery, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Moorenstr, 5, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany. handschel@med.uni-duesseldorf.de
authors.forename: Jörg G K
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Handschel
authors.forename: Rita A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Depprich
authors.forename: Norbert R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Kübler
authors.forename: Hans-Peter
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Wiesmann
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ommerborn
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Meyer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000166:cytology; D002356:Cartilage / Q000166:cytology; D005109:Extracellular Matrix; D006801:Humans; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds