Biomaterials and manufacturing methods for scaffolds in regenerative medicine: Update 2015

It is being increasingly realized that regenerative medicine and tissue engineering offer an alternative technique to whole organ and tissue transplantation for diseased, failed, or malfunctioning organs. To reconstitute a new tissue by regenerative medicine and tissue engineering techniques, three factors, (1) cells, (2) biomaterials, and (3) growth factors, are required. Among these three key components, scaffolds might play a very critical role in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. The role of scaffolds is to induce and stimulate the growth of cells seeded within the porous structure of the scaffolds or of cells migrating from surrounding tissue, eventually 4mimicking Mother Nature’s extracellular matrix. This handbook is the 2nd edition, following the 1st edition in 2012, and introduces the recent trends in the development of biomaterials and the fabrication methods of regenerative medicinal and tissue-engineered intelligent scaffolds.