ABSTRACT
I. Tissue Engineering ......................................................................................................... 317
II. Gene Delivery ................................................................................................................ 319
A. Mechanism of Transfection ................................................................................... 320
III. Materials for Gene Delivery and Scaffolds in Tissue Engineering .............................. 320
A. Natural Derived Polymers ..................................................................................... 321
B. Synthetic Polymers ................................................................................................ 322
IV. Design Criteria for Polymer Scaffolds in Tissue Engineering ...................................... 322
A. Biocompatibility and Cell-Polymer Interactions ................................................. 323
B. Pore Size and Morphology .................................................................................... 323
C. Biodegradability ..................................................................................................... 324
D. Scaffolds as Controlled Release Devices .............................................................. 324
V. Gene Delivery from Scaffolds ....................................................................................... 325
VI. Fabrication Methods ....................................................................................................... 327
VII. Conclusions .................................................................................................................... 328
References ................................................................................................................................... 328
Tissue engineering offers the possibility to create tissues in vitro and replace failing or
malfunctioning organs in vivo.
