Cartilage tissue engineering is based on the isolation of chondrocytes from a tissue biopsy, expanding the cell number in culture, seeding them onto 3D scaffold, incubating for a period of time before placing the construct inside a patient.
Cell phenotype regulation, in vitro expansion of cell numbers, scaffold design and suitability, bioreactor design are all crucial components of the tissue engineering process that need to be optimized to advance cartilage tissue engineering from a mere academic prologue, into a clinical reality and success.