NOVEL TISSUE ENGINEERING AND REGENERATIVE MEDICINE APPROACHES TO HEAL MUSCULOSKELETAL TISSUES AND THEIR RELEVANCE TO ORTHOPAEDICS

The selection of a proper material to be used as a scaffold or as a hydrogel to support, hold or encapsulate cells is both a critical and a difficult choice that will determine the success of failure of any tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM) strategy. We believe that the use of natural origin polymers, including a wide range of marine origin materials, is the best option for many different approaches that allow for the regeneration of different tissues. In addition to the selection of appropriate material systems it is of outmost importance the development of processing methodologies that allow for the production of adequate scaffolds/matrices, in many cases incorporating bioactive/differentiation agents in their structures. An adequate cell source should be selected. In many cases efficient cell isolation, expansion and differentiation, and in many cases the selection of a specific sub-population, methodologies should be developed and optimized. We have been using different human cell so...