Abstract

Cartilage, constituted with a relatively hypocellular structure and lacking of neural and vascular connections, is not a well self-repairing tissue. Cartilage tissue engineering involving bulk of biomaterials has been put forward as a strategy for articular cartilage lesions. The most complicated issue for cartilage repairing is to simulate the highly hierarchical structure, extracellular matrix (ECM) composition and even mechanical features. Electrospinning can produce flexible, dense fibrous membranes with moderate mechanical properties and biological features with different constitution of polymer, orientation, diameter and morphology of fibers, or cooperation forms with other strategies. In our review, four classes are mentioned for cartilage tissue engineering and kinds of biomaterials to be utilized.

Keywords: Cartilage tissue engineering, electrospinning, strategies, application, articular cartilage lesions, biomaterials.