Abstract

Skeletal tissue loss due to congenital defects, disease and injury is normally treated by autologous tissue grafting. However, this method is limited by the availability of the host tissue, harvesting difficulties, donar site morbidity and che clinician’s ability to manipulate delicate 3D shapes. Therefore, the generation of autologous bone grafts in vitro avoiding the harvesting of autologous tissue at a second anatomie location is che ultimate goal in bone tissue engineering.