Honing cell and tissue culture conditions for bone and cartilage tissue engineering

Abstract

An avenue of tremendous interest and need in health care encompasses the regeneration of bone and cartilage. Over the years, numerous tissue engineering strategies have contributed substantial progress toward the realization of clinically relevant therapies. Cell and tissue culture protocols, however, show many variations that make experimental results among different publications challenging to compare. This collection surveys prevalent cell sources, soluble factors, culture medium formulations, environmental factors, and genetic modification approaches in the literature. The intent of consolidating this information is to provide a starting resource for scientists considering how to optimize the parameters for cell differentiation and tissue culture procedures within the context of bone and cartilage tissue engineering.