Biomaterials for Tissue Engineered Scaffolds

In recent years the development of tissue engineered scaffolds from biodegradable polymers has been advancing because of their use as support material for tissue regeneration. This paper describes the various ideal biopolymers and their essential characteristics to suitable for tissue engineering applications. The functional characteristics of biomaterial include the optimization of porosity, wet ability, biocompatibility, surface topology and mechanical property to mimic the ECM function. The scaffold can be designed and fabricated by porogen leaching, thermally induced phase separation, emulsion polymerization, electro spinning and SFF for designing of 3-D scaffolds. Surface modification of scaffold is important to improve their mechanical and chemical properties which can be achieved by suitable chemical and/or irradiation. The scaffold must be biocompatible in order to provide the proper microenvironment for tissue-scaffold interaction. A brief of the ongoing research in the area of scaffold development for bone and cartilage tissue repair is also described.