Synthesis Lectures on Tissue Engineering – serie

The knee meniscus was once thought to be a vestigial tissue, but is now known to be instrumental in imparting stability, shock absorption, load transmission, and stress distribution within the knee joint.

The burgeoning field of tissue engineering holds promise that replacement tissues can be constructed in the laboratory to recapitulate the functional requirements of native tissues.

This book was written to serve as a reference for researchers seeking to learn about articular cartilage, for undergraduate and graduate level courses, and as a compendium of articular cartilage tissue engineering design criteria.

This eight-chapter monograph intends to present basic principles and applications of biomechanics in bone tissue engineering in order to assist tissue engineers in design and use of tissue-engineered products for repair and replacement of damaged/deformed bone tissues.

Disorders related to the intervertebral disc (IVD) are common causes of morbidity and of severe life quality deterioration. The choice of the cells and the choice of the cell carrier suitable for implantation pose major challenges for research and development activities.

Table of Contents: Introduction toRegenerative Dentistry / Tissue Engineering Alveolar Bone / Tissue Engineering of the Periodontal Tissues / Dynamics for Pulp-Dentin Tissue Engineering in Operative Dentistry

Pluripotent and multipotent stem cells offer alternative cell sources due to continuing advancements in identification and differentiation of these cells. Of particular interest is the inclusion of cues to guide stem cells to differentiate into CNS cell types, as well to guide neuron targeting.

Table of Contents: Introduction / Structure and Function of Bone and Cartilage Tissue / Development / Responses to Injury and Grafting / Clinical Applications for Skeletal Tissue Engineering / Animal Models / Tissue Engineering Principles for Bone and Cartilage / Perspectives

Cardiac tissue engineering aims at repairing damaged heart muscle and producing human cardiac tissues for application in drug toxicity studies. This book offers a comprehensive overview of the cardiac tissue engineering strategies, including presenting and discussing the various concepts in use, research directions and applications. Essential basic information on the major components in cardiac tissue engineering, namely cell sources and biomaterials, is firstly presented to the readers, followed by a detailed description of their implementation in different strategies, broadly divided to cellular and acellular ones. In cellular approaches, the biomaterials are used to increase cell retention after implantation or as scaffolds when bioengineering the cardiac patch, in vitro. In acellular approaches, the biomaterials are used as ECM replacement for damaged cardiac ECM after MI, or, in combination with growth factors, the biomaterials assume an additional function as a depot for prolonged factor activity for the effective recruitment of repairing cells. The book also presents technological innovations aimed to improve the quality of the cardiac patches, such as bioreactor applications, stimulation patterns and prevascularization.This book could be of interest not only from an educational perspective (i.e. for graduate students), but also for researchers and medical professionals, to offer them fresh views on novel and powerful treatment strategies. We hope that the reader will find a broad spectrum of ideas and possibilities described in this book both interesting and convincing.Table of Contents: Introduction / The Heart: Structure, Cardiovascular Diseases, and Regeneration / Cell Sources for Cardiac Tissue Engineering / Biomaterials: Polymers, Scaffolds, and Basic Design Criteria / Biomaterials as Vehicles for Stem Cell Delivery and Retention in the Infarct / Bioengineering of Cardiac Patches, In Vitro / Perfusion Bioreactors and Stimulation Patterns in Cardiac Tissue Engineering / Vascularization of Cardiac Patches / Acellular Biomaterials for Cardiac Repair / Biomaterial-based Controlled Delivery of Bioactive Molecules for Myocardial Regeneration