Recent progress in cartilage tissue engineering

Despite over two decades of research on cartilage tissue engineering, very few products have moved from bench to bedside and effective therapy remains lacking. This review discusses recent progress in developing novel strategies for engineering cartilage tissues with long-term functionality. Specifically we focus on the following aspects including identifying promising cell sources, designing 3D scaffolds with dynamic and spatially patterned cues to guide desired cellular processes, mimicking zonal organization, integrating with host tissue, and monitoring cell fate and tissue regeneration in situ.

► Various cell sources for cartilage tissue engineering have been discussed.
► Spatial patterning of functionality in 3D scaffolds in real time is crucial.
► Recreating zonal organization in engineered cartilage may aid long term functionality.
► Integration between host tissue and engineered cartilage needs to be improved.