Biomaterials and bone mechanotransduction

Bone is an extremely complex tissue that provides many essential functions in the body. Bone tissue engineering holds great promise in providing strat egies that will result in complete regeneration of bone and restoration of its function. Currently, such strategies include the transplantation of hig hly porous scaffolds seeded with cells. Prior to transplantation the seeded cells are cultured in vitro in order for the cells to proliferate, differe ntiate and generate extracellular matrix. Factors that can affect cellular function include the cell-biomaterial interaction, as well as the biochemic al and the mechanical environment. To optimize culture conditions, good und erstanding of these parameters is necessary. The new developments in bone b iology, bone cell mechanotransduction, and cell-surface interactions are re viewed here to demonstrate that bone mechanotransduction is strongly influe nced by the biomaterial properties. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.