Tissue engineering scaffolds using superstructures.

Here, scaffolds as cell and tissue carriers are approached from an engineering point of view, emphasizing material superstructuring in the design of supports. Superstructure engineering provides optimal spatial and nutritional conditions for cell maintenance by the arrangement of structural elements (e.g. pores or fibres) so as to vary the order of cell to cell contact. This approach is illustrated in the design of several scaffolds: knitted fabrics as three-dimensional superstructures for optimized osteosynthesis implants, a new injectable open porous implant system, an angiopolar non-degradable ceramic cell carrier, and an injectable or microsurgically implantable entangled carrier system. The implications for tissue engineering are discussed.