Osteochondral Tissue Engineering

Treatment of osteochondral defects can not be completely achieved in orthopaedic surgery. Osteochondral defects reflect damage to both the articular cartilage as well as the underside subchondral bone. The treatment strategies should take into consideration the physical and chemical properties of cartilage, bone and cartilage-bone interface. Although there are several surgical methods developed for the treatment of osteochondral defects, both of them have ensured temporary healing. Therefore, there have been intense efforts on alternative strategies for osteochondral regeneration. At this point, osteochondral tissue engineering have come to the forefront by using the combinations of biomaterials, cells and several bioactive molecules. In this review, fundamentals of osteochondral tissue engineering, osteochondral tissue structure and surgical treatment methods, the biomaterials used and design of single/multiphasic scaffolds, growth factors and cells are comprehensively presented with the current literature examples