Nanomaterial scaffolds to regenerate musculoskeletal tissue: signals from within for neovessel formation

Current treatments for musculoskeletal disease and injury are restricted with the usage of autografts and allografts. Tissue engineering that applies the principles of biology and engineering to develop functional substitutes has potential promise of therapeutic regeneration for musculoskeletal tissues. However, engineering sizable tissues needs a vascular network to supply cells with nutrients, oxygen and signals after implantation. For this purpose, recent developments on therapeutic nanomaterials have been explored in delivering different vessel-inductive growth factors, small biomolecules and ions for scalable engineering into vascularizable scaffolds. Here, we provide an overview on the current efforts, and propose future perspectives for precise regulation on vascularization processes and musculoskeletal tissue functionality.