ABSTRACT
Tissue engineering is increasingly poised to provide more viable alternatives to surgical procedures for the repair of orthopedic defects, such as focal articular cartilage lesions. Cartilage appears to be a relatively simple tissue, yet it is not amenable to regeneration with the techniques available to date. It is alymphatic and aneural, has no contact with blood, and exhibits low cellularity. e main constituents of cartilage are proteoglycans and type II collagen. Many researchers are currently pursuing the goal of creating functional cartilage, both in vitro and in vivo. By creating a tissue in vitro, the time required for healing is decreased, while the probability of a successful recovery is increased. Scaolds that are designed to be used in vivo have the ability to reduce healing time even more dramatically because surgery can be done arthroscopically. However, current injectable materials do not fulll all the structural and biological conditions needed to function in a mechanically loaded environment.
