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Bridging the regeneration gap: stem cells, biomaterials and clinical translation in bone tissue engineering.

Dawson JI, Oreffo RO

Bone and Joint Research Group, Centre for Human Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration, Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, Institute of Developmental Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK. jid@soton.ac.uk

Advances in our understanding of skeletal stem cells and their role in bone development and repair, offer the potential to open new frontiers in bone regeneration. Tissue engineering seeks to harness the regenerative capacity innate to bone for the replacement of tissue lost or damaged through a broad range of conditions associated with an increasingly aged population. The strategy entails ex vivo expansion of multipotential populations followed by delivery to the site of damage on dynamically durable-biodegradable three-dimensional structures which provide the requisite extracellular microenvironment for stem cell driven tissue development. This review will examine bone stem cell biology, and current advances in skeletal tissue engineering through the enhancement and marrying of biologically informed and clinically relevant strategies.

Published 5 May 2008 in Arch Biochem Biophys, 473(2): 124-31.
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