Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Since the meniscus is human cartilage tissue, and its self-repair is difficult, for most patients with meniscus injury, meniscus suturing or resection are hard to play a repair effect, tissue engineering approach may provide a means for its restoration.
OBJECTIVE: To describe the meniscus physiological structure and biomechanical characteristics, to investigate the research progress on the seed cells and scaffolds of their course of treatment in the field of tissue engineering.
METHODS: A computer-based online search of PubMed Database (http://www.ncbi.nim.nih.gov/PubMed) and CNKI Database (www.cnki.net/index.htm) from 1980 to 2010 was performed by authors for articles related to the physical structure and biomechanical characteristics of the meniscus, as well as the seed cells and scaffolds of tissue engineering in meniscus injury repair process, using key words of “meniscus, damage, biological materials”. Duplicated and old studies were excluded.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: A total of 25 studies were retained for further analysis. The meniscus is difficult to self-heal after injury, biomaterials become an important means of cartilage tissue repair, the culture and separation of seed cells, the ideal scaffold material selection and development are key issues to constraint meniscus injury repair. Regulation of cell growth factor provides a greater safeguard for the production and regeneration of seed cells in meniscus, the selection and development of meniscus tissue engineering scaffold materials are experienced a rapid development period from single material to composite material, which can make up many shortcomings and deficiencies of single materials, opened up new ideas for the development of new materials. Cell culture and separation, as well as nano-technology and other biomimetic materials, have become a hotspot for future research.