Bone, cartilage and osteochondral tissue engineering strategies using natural origin polymers and ceramics, growth factors and progenitor cells

[Excerpt] Tissue engineering (TE) has emerged in the last decade of the 20th century as an alternative approach to circumvent the existent limitations in the current therapies for organ failure or replacement. The EU HIPPOCRATES project joined academic and industrial partners to develop novel products and concepts that can be used for bone, cartilage or osteochondral TE strategies. Several issues were addressed including i) the choice and study of adequate human cell cultures, (ii) the development of culture technology with which human tissues can be grown ex vivo in three dimensional biodegradable matrices, (iii) the development of a material technology with which polymeric matrices can be produced, being suitable for cell culture (proliferation, differentiation), (iv) to assess the in-vivo functionality and clinical relevance of the tissue engineering strategies. [...]