Materials for Engineering Cartilage Integration

Musculoskeletal joint motion is facilitated by synchronized interactions between multiple tissue types and the seamless integration of bone with soft tissues such as tendons, ligaments or cartilage. Many of these soft tissues transit into bone through a multi-region interface that minimizes the formation of stress concentrations while enabling load transfer between soft and hard tissues. Given its functional significance, re-establishment of multi-tissue interface is thus critical for promoting the integrative repair of biological as well as tissue engineering cartilage grafts. To this end, interface regeneration and formation of composite tissue units have become a design consideration in tissue engineering. Using the classic osteochondral interface as an example and inspired by current understandings of the native interface structure-function relationship, strategies for interface regeneration and homeostasis will be discussed, with the focus on strategic biomimicry and functional multi-tissue integration.