Scaffold-free tissue engineering for injured joint surface restoration
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Updated: Feb 15, 2026

Elastomeric PGS Scaffolds in Arterial Tissue Engineering
Published on: April 8, 2011
Kazunori Shimomura1,2, Wataru Ando2, Hiromichi Fujie3
1Medicine for Sports and Performing Arts, Department of Health and Sport Sciences, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-2 Yamadaoka, Suita City, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan.
Abstract:
Articular cartilage does not heal spontaneously due to its limited healing capacity, and thus effective treatments for cartilage injuries has remained challenging. Since the first report by Brittberg et al. in 1994, autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) has been introduced into the clinic. Recently, as an alternative for chondrocyte-based therapy, mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-based therapy has received considerable research attention because of the relative ease in handling for tissue harvest, and subsequent cell expansion and differentiation. In this review, we discuss the latest developments regarding stem cell-based therapies for cartilage repair, with special focus on recent scaffold-free approaches.
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