Macro-, micro- and mesoporous materials for tissue engineering applications

Abstract

The design of three-dimensional materials with multiscale pore architecture currently represents a relevant challenge for tissue engineering. In the last three decades, degradable and resorbable biomaterials have been variously manipulated to generate macro/micro/mesoporous templates able to guide and facilitate basic cell activities concurring to the sequence of events triggering in vitro and in vivo regeneration of tissues. In this context, an accurate control of porosity features (i.e., pore size and distribution, pore interconnectivity) as a function of the peculiar properties of constituent materials is extremely demanded to not compromise scaffold mechanical properties and stability and replying local micro-environmental features from structural and functional point of view. Herein, an extended overview of consolidated and emerging approaches to design macro-, micro-, and mesoporous materials has been reported, underlining among differences mainly due to the peculiar properties of used biomaterials (i.e., polymers, ceramics, composites).