Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Absorbable natural collagen scaffolds are mature and ideal substitutes of the meniscus.
OBJECTIVE: To review and summarize the research status of studies on meniscus tissue engineering.
METHODS: A computer-based search of PubMed and VIP databases were performed for articles related to sports-induced meniscus injury and meniscus tissue engineering published from January 1994 to December 2011. The keywords were “tissue engineering, movement of the meniscus, seed cells, natural collagen can be absorbed, biological scaffolds, stress stimulation, mechanical factor” in English and “tissue engineering, sports-induced meniscus injury, seed cells, absorbable natural collagen, biological scaffold, stress stimulation, mechanical factor” in Chinese.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Currently, we focus on the mechanism of meniscus injury, feasibility of natural collagen used as meniscus tissue engineering scaffold, stress stimulation, mechanical factors associated with meniscus recovery. Studies have demonstrated that meniscus tissue engineering has a good prospect in the repair of sports-induced meniscus injury. However, there are many difficulties in the clinical application of meniscus tissue engineering technology, including construction of meniscus tissue engineering scaffolds, extracellular matrix composites and histocompatibility, stress stimulation and mechanical factors following treatment with tissue-engineered meniscus scaffolds.