Tissue Engineering of Articular Cartilage: A Mini-Review

Damage of articular cartilage due to congenital anomaly, injury or pathological process may lead in decreasing of life quality of affected patients. In many cases, conventional therapeutical approaches may not bring expected results. Tissue engineering by the combination of material technology and cell-based therapy may represent hope for these patients. The main goal of this review article is to summarize current knowledge about biological characteristics of somatic stem cells, chondro-inductive substances and materials in respect to regeneration of articular cartilage.