Challenges in engineering osteochondral tissue grafts with hierarchical structures.

Introduction: A major hurdle in treating osteochondral (OC) defects is the different healing abilities of two types of tissues involved - articular cartilage and subchondral bone. Biomimetic approaches to OC-construct engineering, based on recapitulation of biological principles of tissue development and regeneration, have potential for providing new treatments and advancing fundamental studies of OC tissue repair.

Areas Covered: This review on state of the art in hierarchical OC tissue graft engineering is focused on tissue engineering approaches designed to recapitulate the native milieu of cartilage and bone development.