Three-Dimensional Porous Scaffold of Hyaluronic Acid for Cartilage Tissue Engineering

Reconstitution of the articular cartilage tissue can be achieved by cell delivery techniques. However, an optimal procedure exhibiting minimal toxicity and maximum therapeutic efficacy is still to be developed. The two most common cell types that are being investigated for the treatment of osteoarthritis are chondrocytes and mesenchymal stem cells which need to be formulated with the proper signaling molecules and biomaterial scaffolds. So far, derivatized hyaluronic acid (HA) in porous three-dimensional scaffolds is considered the most promising means for delivering and culturing chondrocytes. HA is an attractive framework among the numerous biomaterial scaffolds for its good biocompatibility, biodegradability, as well as excellent gel-forming properties. This section describes the concept of articular cartilage engineering and how far the HA scaffolds have been developed.