Cartilage tissue engineering: instructing cell-based tissue repair through scaffold design

In this study, we investigated the process feasibility of designing anatomically-shaped tissueengineered implants for resurfacing of small articulating joints (i.e. with a short term follow-up in rabbit knee model. This process introduced a number of combinatorial methods for the development of 3D anatomic models from CT scans of the rabbit knee and computer aided design (CAD); rapid prototyping (RP) of porous PEGT/PBT implants with anatomically-shaped external contours but different internal pore architectures; in vitro seeding and tissue culture of expanded rabbit chondrocytes on implants; static and dynamic mechanical evaluation and biochemical composition prior to implantation; and finally re-implantation in an autologous approach in the rabbit knee following tibial and femoral osteotomy.