Cellular materials as porous scaffolds for tissue engineering

A major goal of tissue engineering is to synthesize or regenerate tissues a nd organs. Today, this is done by providing a synthetic porous scaffold, or matrix, which mimics the body's own extracellular matrix, onto which cells attach, multiply, migrate and function. Porous scaffolds are currently bei ng developed for regeneration of skin, cartilage, bone, nerve and liver. Th e microstructures of many porous scaffolds ressemble that of an engineering foam. In this paper, we describe the microstructural requirements for poro us scaffolds, review several processes for making them and show typical mic rostructures. Clinical studies have found that a collagen-based scaffold fo r skin regeneration reduces wound contraction during the healing process, r educing scar formation. The process of wound contraction is not well unders tood. Here, we describe the measurement of contraction of collagen-based sc affolds by fibroblasts in vitro using a cell force monitor. (C) 2001 Elsevi er Science Ltd. All rights reserved.