Tissue engineering research for bone and joint applications entails multidisciplinary teams bringing together the needed expertise in anatomy, biology, biochemistry, pathophysiology, materials science, biomechanics, fluidics, and clinical and veterinary orthopedics. It is the goal of this volume to provide students and investigators who are entering this exciting area with an understanding of the biologic foundations necessary to appreciate the problems in bone and cartilage that may benefit from innovative tissue engineering approaches. This volume includes state-of-the-art information about bone and cartilage physiology at the levels of cell and molecular biology, tissue structure, developmental processes, their metabolic and structural functions, responses to injury, mechanisms of post-natal healing and graft incorporation, the many congenital and acquired disorders, effects of aging, and current clinical standards of care. It reviews the strengths and limitations of various experimental animal models, sources of cells, composition and design of scaffolds, activities of growth factors and genes to enhance histogenesis, and the need for new materials in the context of cell-based and cell-free tissue engineering. These building blocks constitute the dynamic environments in which innovative approaches are needed for addressing debilitating disorders of the skeleton. It is likely that a single tactic will not be sufficient for different applications because of variations in the systemic and local environments. The realizations that tissue regeneration is complex and dynamic underscore the continuing need for innovative multidisciplinary investigations, with an eye to simple and safe therapies for disabled patients. Table of Contents: Introduction / Structure and Function of Bone and Cartilage Tissue / Development / Responses to Injury and Grafting / Clinical Applications for Skeletal Tissue Engineering / Animal Models / Tissue Engineering Principles for Bone and Cartilage / Perspectives
About the Author: Ericka M. Bueno, Ph.D., obtained her doctorate in Chemical Engineering at Northeastern University (Boston, MA) in 2006 with a dissertation on bioreactors for cartilage tissue engineering. Her postdoctoral assignments involved cornea and cartilage tissue engineering, bone regeneration, and collagen biomaterials development. Dr. Bueno has authored several peer-reviewed articles in the field of tissue engineering and has contributed both oral and poster presentations at more than 20 international conferences. She is an active member of the Orthopedic Research Society. In 2008, she joined the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA) as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow. She is currently a researcher in composite tissue allotransplantation in the Division of Plastic Surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital and, since 2010, the Manager of the Face and Hand Transplant Programs at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Instructor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. Julie Glowacki, Ph.D., is Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, Harvard Medical School and Professor of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, Harvard School of Dental Medicine. She is Director of Skeletal Biology Laboratory at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA and co-director of the Brigham and Women's Hospital Musculoskeletal Research Center. She received her Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from Harvard University. She has published more than 130 original, peer-reviewed research articles and numerous chapters concerning basic, translational, and clinical research on skeletal development and aging, on the roles of vitamin D in bone formation and skeletal health, and on innovative approaches to bone and joint construction and reconstruction. She has developed a number of animal models and methods for defining effects of age, gender, and other clinical features on properties of human, marrow-derived, skeletal progenitor cells. She co-edited The Aging Skeleton. She has been a voting member of the US FDA Dental Products Panel and led their initiative on bone substitute materials. She has served on NIH, NASA, Department of Defense, international, and foundation grant review and advisory panels.