Controlled release of gene therapy constructs from solid scaffolds for therapeutic applications in orthopedics

Injuries occurring in orthopedic tissues do not completely heal if left untreated due to their imperfect self abilities for spontaneous repair. As most of the current clinical treatments often fail to fully restore the damaged tissues, there is a critical need to develop potent alternatives to activate the processes of repair in sites of orthopedic lesions. In this regard, combining gene therapy approaches with tissue engineering procedures to generate therapeutic gene vector-guided delivery systems, especially those based on mechanically stable solid scaffolds, is an attractive strategy to provide off-the-shelf compounds for the convenient spatiotemporal expression of candidate agents in orthopedic tissue defects. The goal of this review is to report the most advanced technologies using such scaffolds as tools for the controlled delivery of gene transfer vectors to improve orthopedic tissue repair.