Biomedical Applications

**161**

**Chapter 10**

**Abstract**

Comprehensive Review on Full

Bone Regeneration through 3D

*Cristiana Fernandes, Carla Moura, Rita M.T. Ascenso,* 

Over the last decades, the number of work accidents associated with bone fractures has increased leading to a growing concern worldwide. Currently, autografts, allografts, and xenografts are used for bone regeneration. However, their application has associated risks. Tissue engineering (TE) has brought solutions to address these problems, through the production of temporary supports, providing mechanical support to the formation of new bone tissue and biocompatible and biodegradable scaffolds, which allow cell adhesion and proliferation to ensure bone formation. The combination of materials and structure with the technique to be used will directly influence their physical and chemical properties and, consequently, their action in contributing to bone regeneration. Thus, the focus of this chapter is to perform an exhaustive literature review and a critical analysis of the state of the art in bone TE and present a proposal of an optimized temporary support geometry for bone regeneration in case of large bone defects. For this, it was listed and identified the best choice of biomaterials, fabrication method, cell type and their culture conditions (static vs. dynamic), and/or the inclusion of growth

**Keywords:** large bone defects, bone regeneration, tissue engineering, cell culture,

The population is increasingly exposed to accidents, both in daily routine and at work. In Portugal, among 209,390 non-death accidents that occurred in 2017, almost 4% were bone fractures that are limitative for the active population and require a long time of recovery [1]. Many research groups have been working on bone regeneration for over 10 years, but this has not led to effective therapy in a clinical setting. If it was successful, it would enhance the quality of life for millions of people and significantly reduce the absence to work due to fractures which are

The bone is a natural composite containing organic components (mainly collagen type I and fibrillin) and inorganic crystalline minerals (such as hydroxyapatite (Hap)), defined as hard tissue [2–4]. The characteristic of the collagen fibers in

*Sandra Amado, Nuno Alves and Paula Pascoal-Faria*

Printing Approaches

factors for the repair of large bone defects.

CAD, scaffolds, additive manufacturing

considered the second higher cause of working day lost.

**1. Introduction**
