Tissue Scaffolds As a Local Drug Delivery System for Bone Regeneration

Healing fractures resulting from bone disorders such as osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, osteomyelitis, and osteosarcoma remain a significant clinical challenge. In this chapter, we focus on scaffold based local drug delivery applications for promoting bone regeneration. For this purpose, we first review bone disorders, which require drug treatment and current fabrication techniques for bone tissue scaffold as a drug carrier. Next, we address the role of antimicrobial agents, anti-inflammatory drugs, anti-cancer drugs and bisphosphonates in promoting vascularized bone regeneration and discuss various local therapeutic delivery strategies for controlled and sustained drug delivery. Specifically, this review addresses the concept of drug loaded scaffold design and local drug release effects on bone regeneration. We conclude this review with a discussion of local drug delivery approaches to bone regeneration and discuss why it has the potential to be more efficient than traditional bone treatment methods.