Journal of Tissue Science and Engineering

Functionally-Graded Polymeric Graft Substitutes and Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering can be Fabricated via Various Extrusion Methods

Abstract

Dilhan M Kalyon, Cevat Erisken, Seher Ozkan, Asli Ergun-Butros, Xiaojun Yu, Hongjun Wang, Antonio Valdevit and Arthur Ritter

The design and fabrication of bioresorbable polymeric graft substitutes and porous scaffolds for regenerative medicine are challenged by the complexities in structure and composition found in native tissues. The mimicking of complex gradations found in native tissues requires correspondingly complex gradations in bone graft substitutes and tissue engineering scaffolds. Extrusion based processing methods offer significant advantages for the fabrication of scaffolds and polymeric graft substitutes functionally-graded in various directions for porosity, composition as well as distributions of other tissue relevant properties.