Review paper: Critical Issues in Tissue Engineering: Biomaterials, Cell Sources, Angiogenesis, and Drug Delivery Systems

Tissue engineering is a newly emerging biomedical technology, which aids and increases the repair and regeneration of deficient and injured tissues. It employs the principles from the fields of materials science, cell biology, transplantation, and engineering in an effort to treat or replace damaged tissues. Tissue engineering and development of complex tissues or organs, such as heart, muscle, kidney, liver, and lung, are still a distant milestone in twenty-first century. Generally, there are four main challenges in tissue engineering which need optimization. These include biomaterials, cell sources, vascularization of engineered tissues, and design of drug delivery systems. Biomaterials and cell sources should be specific for the engineering of each tissue or organ. On the other hand, angiogenesis is required not only for the treatment of a variety of ischemic conditions, but it is also a critical component of virtually all tissue-engineering strategies. Therefore, controlling the dose, location, and duration of releasing angiogenic factors via polymeric delivery systems, in order to ultimately better mimic the stem cell niche through scaffolds, will dictate the utility of a variety of biomaterials in tissue regeneration. This review focuses on the use of polymeric vehicles that are made of synthetic and/or natural biomaterials as scaffolds for three-dimensional cell cultures and for locally delivering the inductive growth factors in various formats to provide a method of controlled, localized delivery for the desired time frame and for vascularized tissue-engineering therapies.