Abstract:

BACKGROUND: The key to construct tissue engineered tendon is to look for appropriate scaffold materials for tendon cell adhesion, growth and functional differentiation.
OBJECTIVE: To assess the effects of different biomaterials on Achilles tendon injury.
METHODS: “Biomaterial, Achilles tendon, repair” were used as keywords to retrieve articles about biomaterials for treatment of Achilles tendon injuries published 1985-01/2011-01 in Wanfang database.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Self-healing and repair of old Achilles tendon rupture is difficult, and pain and dysfunction easily occur. Over the years, there are many studies about treatment of Achilles tendon injuries from autologous tendon graft and tendon allograft to artificial tendon and tissue-engineered tendon. The above-mentioned methods have their own advantages and disadvantages. Although studies on scaffold materials for tissue-engineered tendon have achieved some results, the poor biocompatibility, degradation or mechanical properties as well as difficulty to molding lead to a great difference from ideal scaffold materials.