Osteochondral Tissue Engineering

This book covers the most recent developments in the field of osteochondral tissue engineering (OCTE) and covers in detail the concepts and current challenges for bone and cartilage repair and regeneration. Specific topics include viscosupplementation, biologicals, tissue engineering approaches, in vitro and in vivo models, and technological advances with stem cells, bioreactors, and microfluidics. Osteochondral Tissue Engineering: Challenges, Current Strategies, and Technological Advances presents challenges and strategies in the field of osteochondral regeneration and serves as a core reference for biomedical engineering students and a wide range of established researchers and professionals working in orthopedics.

This book reviews the most recent developments in the field of osteochondral tissue engineering (OCTE) and presents challenges and strategies being developed that face not only bone and cartilage regeneration, but also establish osteochondral interface formation in order to translate it into a clinical setting. Topics include nanotechnology approaches and biomaterials advances in osteochondral engineering, advanced processing methodology, as well as scaffolding and surface engineering strategies in OCTE. Hydrogel systems for osteochondral applications are also detailed thoroughly. Osteochondral Tissue Engineering: Nanotechnology, Scaffolding-Related Developments and Translation is an ideal book for biomedical engineering students and a wide range of established researchers and professionals working in the orthopedic field.

Cartilage injuries in children and adolescents are increasingly observed, with roughly 20% of knee injuries in adolescents requiring surgery. In the US alone, costs of osteoarthritis (OA) are in excess of $65 billion per year (both medical costs and lost wages). Comorbidities are common with OA and are also costly to manage. Articular cartilage's low friction and high capacity to bear load makes it critical in the movement of one bone against another, and its lack of a sustained natural healing response has necessitated a plethora of therapies. Tissue engineering is an emerging technology at the threshold of translation to clinical use. Replacement cartilage can be constructed in the laboratory to recapitulate the functional requirements of native tissues. This book outlines the biomechanical and biochemical characteristics of articular cartilage in both normal and pathological states, through development and aging. It also provides a historical perspective of past and current cartilage treatments and previous tissue engineering efforts. Methods and standards for evaluating the function of engineered tissues are discussed, and current cartilage products are presented with an analysis on the United States Food and Drug Administration regulatory pathways that products must follow to market. This book was written to serve as a reference for researchers seeking to learn about articular cartilage, for undergraduate and graduate level courses, and as a compendium of articular cartilage tissue engineering design criteria. Table of Contents: Hyaline Articular Cartilage / Cartilage Aging and Pathology / In Vitro / Bioreactors / Future Directions

This book presents regenerative strategies for the treatment of knee joint disabilities. The book is composed of four main sections totaling 19 chapters which review the current knowledge on the clinical management and preclinical regenerative strategies. It examines the role of different natural-based biomaterials as scaffolds and implants for addressing different tissue lesions in the knee joint. Section one provides an updated and comprehensive discussion on articular cartilage tissue regeneration. Section two focuses on the important contributions for bone and osteochondral tissue engineering. Section three overview the recent advances on meniscus repair/regeneration strategies. Finally, section four further discusses the current strategies for treatment of ligament lesions. Each chapter is prepared by world know expert on their fields, so we do firmly believe that the proposed book will be a reference in the area of biomaterials for regenerative medicine.

Richly illustrated throughout with actual tissue images, this innovative book shows that the soft-hard tissue junction is best understood in a biomechanical context. The authors describe their pioneering experimental methods, providing an essential structure-function framework for computational modelling, and thereby encouraging the development of more realistic, predictive models of this important tissue junction. Covering the three main musculoskeletal junctions of cartilage-bone, disc-vertebra, and ligament/tendon-bone, the relevant soft tissues are examined with respect to both their own inherent structure and their mode of integration with the hard tissue. The soft-hard tissue interface is explored with a focus on structural damage resulting from overloading, and its associated pathologies. Adopting a multiscale approach, ranging in structural resolution from the macro to fibril levels, this is a must-have guide to the field and an ideal resource for researchers seeking new and creative approaches for studying the joint and spine tissues.

The growing interest in scaffolding design and increasing research programs dedicated to regenerative medicine corroborate the need for Scaffolding in Tissue Engineering. While certain books and journal articles address various aspects in the field, this is the first current, comprehensive text focusing on scaffolding for tissue engineering.

Advances in Tissue Engineering is a unique volume and the first of its kind to bring together leading names in the field of tissue engineering and stem cell research. A relatively young science, tissue engineering can be seen in both scientific and sociological contexts and successes in the field are now leading to clinical reality. This book attempts to define the path from basic science to practical application. A contribution from the UK Stem Cell Bank and opinions of venture capitalists offer a variety of viewpoints, and exciting new areas of stem cell biology are highlighted. With over fifty stellar contributors, this book presents the most up-to-date information in this very topical and exciting field./a

A comprehensive overview of the latest achievements, trends, and the current state of the art of this important and rapidly expanding field. Clearly and logically structured, the first part of the book explores the fundamentals of tissue engineering, providing a separate chapter on each of the basic topics, including biomaterials stem cells, biosensors and bioreactors. The second part then follows a more applied approach, discussing various applications of tissue engineering, such as the replacement or repairing of skins, cartilages, livers and blood vessels, to trachea, lungs and cardiac tissues, to musculoskeletal tissue engineering used for bones and ligaments as well as pancreas, kidney and neural tissue engineering for the brain. The book concludes with a look at future technological advances. An invaluable reading for entrants to the field in biomedical engineering as well as expert researchers and developers in industry.

Tissue engineering is viewed as a promising method for repair of articular cartilage injuries. While mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) based tissue engineering strategies have produced tissue constructs that display extracellular matrix similarities to articular cartilage, including glycosaminoglycan (GAG) and collagen type II synthesis, these constructs have failed to provide a clinical solution. One primary limitation is the lack of integration between the engineered construct and the native cartilage. Integration is very difficult to achieve due to the avascular nature of articular cartilage. The use of osteochondral constructs can allow for enhanced integration since the construct is anchored with the subchondral bone, a highly vascularized tissue that displays an intrinsic remodeling capability. We developed a gradient generating bioreactor for biphasic tissue fabrication and investigated the fabrication of osteochondral tissue constructs. We hypothesized that exposure of MSC-scaffold constructs to osteochondral gradients would allow for the production of an osteochondral tissue construct that transitions from a cartilage-like region to a bone-like mineralized region. The bioreactor developed within this dissertation utilizes two flow inlet streams of different compositions, which combine into a single flow channel to form a biomolecular gradient across three-dimensional cell-scaffold constructs. The bioreactor was characterized via COMSOL Multiphysics simulations and fluorescent/dye molecule tracer experiments and was then fabricated from Delrin. Osteochondral gradients were generated across human MSCs seeded within collagen-GAG scaffolds. The developed tissue constructs displayed two distinct regions: a cartilage-like region and a mineralized region. Mineralization was observed via von Kossa staining and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy. Production of collagen type II was visualized via immunohistochemistry and was highest in regions of the tissue construct exposed to higher concentrations of chondrogenic medium. GAG production was observed throughout the construct using Safranin O staining and a quantitative GAG/DNA assay. Via mechanical characterization, the osteogenic regions of these samples displayed higher aggregate modulus values compared to the chondrogenic regions. These results indicate the osteochondral tissue constructs displayed both biochemical properties and mechanical properties unique to each tissue region. The novel gradient generating bioreactor developed here to investigate osteochondral tissue construct fabrication serves as promising tool to study the engineering of biphasic tissues.