Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Tissue engineering has provided a new therapeutic approach for disc degeneration.
OBJECTIVE: To summarize the research progress in the patterns and construction methods of tissue engineered intervertebral disc annulus fibrosus scaffolds.
METHODS: A computer-based retrieval was performed to search manuscripts describing tissue engineered intervertebral disc annulus fibrosus published between 1988 and 2011 in CNKI and PubMed databases with the key words of “tissue engineering, intervertebral disc, scaffold, annulus fibrosus, construction” in Chinese and English, respectively.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The key to construct intervertebral disc is annulus fibrosus scaffold, but relevant research is still in its earliest stage. Annulus fibrosus scaffolds consist of two materials: one is silk, alginate, and other natural biomaterials; the other is polyurethane, polyglycolic acid, polylactic acid, nano fiber and other synthetic materials. A variety of scaffold materials have their own advantages and disadvantages. Current methods for annulus fibrosus scaffold construction include pore-forming agent method, wet spinning technology and electrostatic spinning method. And the construction of functional annulus fibrosus is still at the initial stage. The optimization methods of annulus fibrosus scaffold construction and fixation of annulus fibrosus scaffolds are still to be further studied.