TOTBİD Dergisi

TOTBİD Dergisi

2023, Cilt 22, Sayı, 1     (Sayfalar: 031-037)

Advances in meniscus tissue engineering

Nihat Demirhan Demirkıran 1

1 Kütahya Sağlık Bilimleri Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Ortopedi ve Travmatoloji Ana Bilim Dalı, Kütahya

DOI: 10.5578/totbid.dergisi.2023.05
Görüntüleme: 657
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İndirme : 377

Although the importance of saving and repairing the menisci is well understood today, it may not always be possible. Tissue engineering applications in meniscal surgery gained momentum with the development of scaffold implants in the early 1990s to fill the defect of the meniscus after irreparable defects or meniscectomies. Tissue engineering is a field of research that envisages the use of `both engineering and life science principles for the development of materials to replace biological tissues to restore, maintain or improve tissue function` and basically utilizes three main variables: scaffolds, cells and bioactive agents (growth factors). Scaffolds produced from several different biomaterials with various material properties; a large number of differentiated or stem cells; gene therapy methods and biochemical or biomechanical stimuli have been applied in meniscus tissue engineering, to develop the ideal implant to replace the damaged meniscus. With these implants, it is aimed to prevent cartilage damage and the risk of future osteoarthritis. However, no artificial material has been fully successful in providing the mechanical properties of the native meniscus, and despite all efforts an implant that has been routinely used in clinics by proving that it protects the cartilage adequately, has not been designed yet. Today, the most promising approaches stand out as applications where cell-loaded scaffolds produced in appropriate sizes for the defect which are enriched with biomechanical, biochemical and gene therapy methods. Although we are still far away from a material that can replace the meniscus by simulating the biological and mechanical structure of the meniscus; in the future the path to be taken in this direction will be through tissue engineering applications.

Anahtar Kelimeler : meniscus; tissue engineering; scaffolds