Prospects of Micromass Culture Technology in Tissue Engineering
The in vitro formation of bone- or cartilaginouslike tissue for subsequent implantation [1, 13, 15] or other organs is, as described, commonly performed using scaffolds. Various scaffold materials have been introduced, each showing specific advantages and
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J. Handschel, H. P. Wiesmann, U. Meyer
Contents 40.1
Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551
40.2
What Is the Theory of Micromass Technique? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551
40.3
Technical Aspects of the Micromass Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552
40.4
Cell Sources for Micromass Technology . . 553
40.5
Future Prospects and Challenges . . . . . . . . 554 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555
40.1
Background
The in vitro formation of bone- or cartilaginouslike tissue for subsequent implantation [1, 13, 15] or other organs is, as described, commonly performed using scaffolds. Various scaffold materials have been introduced, each showing specific advantages and disadvantages in vitro and in vivo. Recently, there has been a controversy (e.g., biocompatibility, biodegradability) concerning the use of artificial scaffolds compared to the use of a natural matrix [24]. Skeletal defect regeneration by extracorporally created tissues commonly exploits a three-dimensional cell-containing artificial scaffold. As indicated before, a number of in vitro studies have been performed to evaluate the cell behaviour in various three-dimensional artificial scaffold materials [10, 18, 19, 25]. Whereas most of
these materials were generally shown to allow spacing of skeletal cells in a three-dimensional space, not all materials promote the ingrowth of cells within the scaffolds [7]. Rather, supporting cellular function depends, as described, on multiple parameters, such as the chosen cell line, the underlying material, the surface properties and the scaffold structure. Some in vitro studies indicate that a material itself may impair the outcome of ex vivo tissue formation when compared to a natural-tissue-containing matrix. Additionally, in the in vivo situation, defect regeneration can be critically impaired by the immunogenity of the material, the unpredictable degradation time, and by side effects caused by degradation products [24]. Based on these considerations, matrices close to the natural extracellular matrix are regarded as most promising in skeletal tissue engineering by some researchers. A recently elaborated approach in extracorporeal tissue engineering is therefore the avoidance of non-degradable scaffolds that are resorbed at a different time rate than the skeletal tissue regeneration by itself proceeds. Therefore, new approaches have been invented to overcome these problems by renouncing scaffolds.
40.2
What Is the Theory of Micromass Technique?
It is well known that tissue explants can regenerate complete organisms [14]. Basic research has
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indicated that regeneration of simple animals and microtissues can be achieved by reaggregation approaches using the micromass technique [22]. Investigations on skeletal development gave first insight into this micromass biology [5, 6, 17]. The micromass technology relies to a great extent on the presence of the proteinacious extracel
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