ABSTRACT
The loss or failure of an organ or tissue is one of the most common, devastating, and costly problems in human health care. The increasing number of transplantation surgeries has led to high donor organ demand, which far exceeds supply. Each year, about 15% of potential candidates for liver or heart transplantation in the United States die while on the waiting list. Although they have proven successful with regard to patient recover, autografts (autotransplantations) and allografts (allotransplantations) have obvious shortcomings in that the organ from another part of the patient (autograft) or from the donor (allograft) must be sacriced or damaged. Xenograft (xenotransplantation), which uses organ sources from animals (e.g., pigs), also has drawbacks due to issues surrounding the
12.1 Tissue Engineering and Tissue Engineering Scaffolds ...................................................... 315 12.1.1 Denition of Tissue Engineering .......................................................................... 315 12.1.2 Fundamentals of Tissue Engineering .................................................................... 316
12.1.2.1 Cells ...................................................................................................... 318 12.1.2.2 Biological Factors ................................................................................. 318 12.1.2.3 Scaffold ................................................................................................ 318
12.1.3 Tissue Engineering Scaffold Requirements .......................................................... 318 12.1.3.1 Scaffold Structure................................................................................. 319 12.1.3.2 Scaffold Surface Properties .................................................................. 319 12.1.3.3 Scaffold Physical Properties ................................................................. 321 12.1.3.4 Scaffold Materials ................................................................................ 322
12.2 Tissue Engineering Scaffold Fabrication ............................................................................ 323 12.2.1 Wet Methods ......................................................................................................... 323
12.2.1.1 Solvent Casting and Particle Leaching................................................. 323 12.2.1.2 Thermally Induced Phase Separation .................................................. 326 12.2.1.3 Electrospinning .................................................................................... 329
12.2.2 Solvent-Free Methods ........................................................................................... 332 12.2.2.1 Blending and Particle Leaching (Particulate Leaching) ...................... 332 12.2.2.2 Gas Foaming ........................................................................................ 333 12.2.2.3 Solid Freeform Fabrication................................................................... 338
References ......................................................................................................................................340
