Novel Grafts and Biomaterials in Bone Tissue Engineering

Dear Colleagues,

The skeletal system displays a good regenerative capability, but natural healing does not occur always properly. This is the case in bone non-unions, delayed bone formation after fracture, bone lacunae after invasive surgery, inborn malformations, and alveolar resorption. The treatment of bone defects is of major interest in the biomedical field, as bone is the second most commonly transplanted tissue after blood, with over 2.2 million bone grafting procedures performed annually worldwide.

Bone grafting is clinically used in the form of fillers and scaffolds to facilitate bone formation and promote wound healing. However, most surgeons and dentists still prefer autologous bone to other types of bone substitutes such as xenografts or allografts. To develop a viable alternative capable to overcome the pitfalls of autologous bone, i.e., reduced availability, donor site morbidity, etc., while ensuring at least the same performance, researchers have reverted to tissue engineering. Indeed, for effective bone regeneration to occur, three key elements must coexist: a carrier, growth and differentiation factors, and living functional cells synthesizing the extracellular matrix.

Given these premises, a variety of research approaches have emerged during the last few years, including the following:

-The usage of different cell populations, i.e., bone marrow stem cells, adipose-derived stem cells, and stromal vascular fraction to enrich bone scaffolds;

-The ex vivo preparation of cell-loaded scaffolds in bioreactors;

-The usage of growth factors on various carriers to recruit cells from the recipient;

-Novel bone biomaterials as carriers;

-The bioactivity enhancement of graft materials through physical methods (for instance, non-atmospheric pressure plasma treatments).

Any innovative, well-planned study dealing with ‘’Novel Grafts and Biomaterials in Bone Tissue Engineering’’ is welcome. We kindly invite you to submit a manuscript for this Special Issue. Full papers, communications, and reviews are all welcome.

Prof. Dr. Federico Mussano
Guest Editor

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• Bone graft
• Bone regeneration
• Bone engineering
• Bone marrow stem cells
• Adipose derived stem cells
• Growth factors