Biomaterials in Meniscus Tissue Engineering

Meniscus is a complex tissue that plays important roles on the knee
performance and homeostasis. The meniscus tissue is very susceptible to injury and
despite the great advances in meniscus regeneration area, none of the current
strategies for the treatment of meniscus lesions are completely effective. To overcome
such great challenge, tissue engineering-based strategies have been attempted.
One of the main targets in this research area is to find out a biomaterial or formulations
that are able to mimic as much as possible the meniscus native extracellular
matrix. In the last few years the characteristics and behaviors of different
biomaterials were explored and several processing routes attempted to obtain an
adequate architecture for proper cells adhesion, ingrowths, proliferation and differentiation.
Herein, a panoply of biomaterials that have been used in meniscus
tissue engineering strategies are overviewed.