Scaffold Design for Bone Tissue Engineering: From Micrometric to Nanometric Level

Abstract

Porous biodegradable polymeric scaffolds are essential for tissue -engineering application since they should provide the adequate three-dimensional structure for cellular attachment and tissue development. In this context, recent paradigm moves towards new fabrication techniques able to develop micro- and nano-structured platforms which assure an optimal balance in terms of cell -recognition, mass transport properties, and mechanical response to reproduce the morphological and functional features of natural tissues at the microscopic and nanoscopic level. Here, a large variety of technologies has been proposed to develop tailor-made platforms with micro/nanoscale architecture and chemical composition suitable for regenerating natural bony extracellular matrix (bECM). © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013.