Macro-, micro- and mesoporous materials for tissue engineering applications

Abstract

The design of three-dimensional materials with multiscale pore architecture currently represents a relevant challenge for tissue engineering. In the last three decades, degradable and resorbable biomaterials have been variously manipulated to generate macro/micro/mesoporous templates able to guide and facilitate basic cell activities concurring to the sequence of events triggering <em>in vitro</em> and <em>in vivo</em> regeneration of tissues. In this context, an accurate control of porosity features (i.e., pore size and distribution, pore interconnectivity) as a function of the peculiar properties of constituent materials is extremely demanded to not compromise scaffold mechanical properties and stability and replying local micro-environmental features from structural and functional point of view. Herein, an extended overview of consolidated and emerging approaches to design macro-, micro-, and mesoporous materials has been reported, underlining among differences mainly due to the peculiar properties of used biomaterials (i.e., polymers, ceramics, composites).