Introduction Tissue engineering has evolved out of the need to repair organs and tissues damaged by disease or injury. Keywords: cellular solids, open-cell foam, polymers, scaffolds, tissue engineering. Homogeneous, high-water-content hydrogels with mechanical properties that match the soft nerve tissue are commonly used as a scaffold, and the methods used to make these are reviewed. The appropriate scaffold for soft tissues like nerve fibers (e.g., axons, which conduct nerve impulses) also has a high degree of interconnected pores however, the pores may require orientation and may be smaller. Several approaches are described for constructing tissue-engineering scaffolds for bone. The appropriate scaffold for a hard tissue such as bone has a high degree of interconnected macroporosity and allows the rapid invasion of cells while maintaining a rigid structure. In this review, we focus on scaffolds for two tissue types-bone and nervous tissue- and describe different approaches used to create them. The scaffold is designed with biology in mind, and thus the architecture and chemistry differ according to tissue type. Shoichet Abstract Devices for tissue engineering comprise scaffolds with the appropriate chemistry and architecture to promote cell infiltration and colonization. 6 Pages / 612 x 792 pts (letter) Page_size.

Scaffold tissue engineering