Research Advances in Bone and Cartilage Tissue Engineering

Dear Colleagues,

Bone and cartilage are important organ/tissues that are responsible for human body movement. Fracture non-union or segmental bone defects are clinical challenges for orthopedic surgeons. Osteoporosis greatly increases the risk of fractures in the older population. Bone healing disorders significantly affect patients’ quality of life and can even cause disability. Articular cartilage that covers the joint surfaces has limited capacity for self-repair and healing due to the lack of blood vessels. Adult cartilage injuries larger than 5 mm never heal without intervention. Age-related or post-traumatic arthritis affected 32.5 million USA adults and estimated 654.1 million individuals (40 years and older) with knee OA in 2020 worldwide. Currently, joint replacement remains the ultimate cure. Sports-injury-related cartilage damage significantly affects return to play for professional or recreational players. Researchers in the past two decades have made significant advances using stem cells, gene therapy, and sustained release of biomaterials for the delivery of growth factors for bone and cartilage regeneration, but few have translated these achievements into new clinical therapies for treating patients and curing these diseases.

Therefore, the aim of this Special Issue is to bring multidisciplinary research scholars together and publish original research or review articles that summarize recent advances in bone and cartilage tissue engineering and repair. These include the use of stem cells, gene therapy including mRNA technology, and biomaterials for sustained release of therapeutic growth factors for promoting endogenous stem-cell-mediated bone and cartilage regeneration and repair. The ultimate goal is to encourage researchers to develop new therapies for treating bone defects or cartilage damage, including OA and traumatic injury.

Topics include but are not limited to:

• Stem cells for bone tissue engineering and regeneration;
• Stem cells for cartilage tissue engineering and regeneration;
• Gene therapy for bone defect repair and tissue engineering;
• Gene therapy for cartilage tissue engineering and repair;
• Biomaterials, delivery of growth factors for bone tissue engineering;
• Biomaterials, delivery of growth factors for cartilage repair;
• Novel techniques including exosome and miRNA for cartilage repair.

Dr. Xueqin Gao
Prof. Dr. Arvydas Usas
Dr. Hongshuai Li
Guest Editors

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