ABSTRACT
Tissue Engineering (TE) is an interdisciplinary research fi eld that focuses on creating cellularized constructs with the potential to restore the functions of damaged organs that were either lost due to an inherent limited
Institute for Bioprocessing and Analytical Measurement Techniques e.V., Rosenhof, 37308 Heilbad Heiligenstadt, Germany. *Corresponding author
potential to regenerate functional tissue (like in articular cartilage) or due to damage that is too extensive to enable the native regeneration process (for example critical non-union fractions of bone). In the past 30 yr since the pioneering visions and studies, a great body of knowledge and sophisticated technologies has been developed in the fi eld of TE. Initiated with the motivation to develop artifi cial tissues that are intended to cure severe illnesses this research area has experienced an evolution of its scientifi c paradigms. The fi rst paradigm in TE, established during the 1980s, was coined on the development of three dimensional culture conditions that are commonly associated with scaffolding biomaterials. The concept was to combine a desired cell population with a suitable scaffold architecture made of resorbable biomaterials and soluble factors in a bioreactor that would eventually yield an engineered tissue. Around the turn of the century an extension of this paradigm towards functional TE was introduced. Inspired by the growing knowledge about how mechanical stimuli, exerted from nano-to macroscale features of the polymeric extracellular matrix (ECM), affect cell and tissue fate, biomechanical considerations were additionally implicated into the design of TE processes. Nonetheless, despite the enormous fi nancial support that was dedicated to research projects in TE over the last two decades there is a perceivable discrepancy between the great expectations and the actual clinical/commercial outcomes of this research discipline (Ingber et al. 2006, Williams 2006, Lenas et al. 2009a). Thus, the probability that TE is facing a further evolution of its scientifi c paradigms has certainly increased over the last years.
