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Functional Scaffold for Tissue Engineering

Yoshiaki HIRANO

Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering, Osaka Institute of Technology.

Tissue engineering aims to create new tissues and organs to replace those lost to disease, trauma, or congenital defects. However, considerable instruction must be given to the cells forming these new tissues if one is to create a tissue structurally and functionally similar to the native tissue. Materials (Scaffold) play a key role in virtually all tissue engineering approaches. Scaffold create and maintain a space for tissue formation, provide mechanical support to the forming tissue, deliver inductive molecules or cells to the site of interest, and provide cues controlling the structure and function of the newly created. The cell-binding domain of fibronectin and many other adhesive proteins in ECM contains the peptide Arg-Gly-Asp-Ser (RGDS), and this sequence is recognized by integrin receptors. An overview of techniques to present RGDS peptides from scaffold, and the utility of these systems in engineering tissues in vitro and in vivo is presented.