title: Strategies for osteochondral repair: Focus on scaffolds.
abstract: Interest in osteochondral repair has been increasing with the growing number of sports-related injuries, accident traumas, and congenital diseases and disorders. Although therapeutic interventions are entering an advanced stage, current surgical procedures are still in their infancy. Unlike other tissues, the osteochondral zone shows a high level of gradient and interfacial tissue organization between bone and cartilage, and thus has unique characteristics related to the ability to resist mechanical compression and restoration. Among the possible therapies, tissue engineering of osteochondral tissues has shown considerable promise where multiple approaches of utilizing cells, scaffolds, and signaling molecules have been pursued. This review focuses particularly on the importance of scaffold design and its role in the success of osteochondral tissue engineering. Biphasic and gradient composition with proper pore configurations are the basic design consideration for scaffolds. Surface modification is an essential technique to improve the scaffold function associated with cell regulation or delivery of signaling molecules. The use of functional scaffolds with a controllable delivery strategy of multiple signaling molecules is also considered a promising therapeutic approach. In this review, we updated the recent advances in scaffolding approaches for osteochondral tissue engineering.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Tissue Regeneration Engineering (ITREN), Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea ; Department of Nanobiomedical Science, BK21 PLUS NBM Global Research Center for Regenerative Medicine, Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Seog-Jin
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Seo
authors.affiliation: Institute of Tissue Regeneration Engineering (ITREN), Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea ; Department of Nanobiomedical Science, BK21 PLUS NBM Global Research Center for Regenerative Medicine, Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Chinmaya
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mahapatra
authors.affiliation: Institute of Tissue Regeneration Engineering (ITREN), Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea ; Department of Nanobiomedical Science, BK21 PLUS NBM Global Research Center for Regenerative Medicine, Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Rajendra K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Division of Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, Eastman Dental Institute, University College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Jonathan C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Knowles
authors.affiliation: Institute of Tissue Regeneration Engineering (ITREN), Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea ; Department of Nanobiomedical Science, BK21 PLUS NBM Global Research Center for Regenerative Medicine, Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea ; Department of Biomaterials Science, College of Dentistry, Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hae-Won
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Kim
keywords: Osteochondral repair; interfacial tissue; scaffold design; therapeutic functions; tissue engineering