[Vocabulary] What is the meaning of "scaffold-based" in tissue engineering / medicine?

[strawberry.]

I saw an academic article in English language about bioprinting / tissue engineering and I really didn't understand the meaning of "scaffold-based".

Phrase that I saw in the academic article:
"Advances made in materials science innovation, including scaffold-based delivery systems for precision tissue engineering".

Font:Jeremie D. Oliver, Shihai Jia, Leslie R. Halpern, Emily M. Graham, Emma C. Turner, John S. Colombo, David W. Grainger, and Rena N. D'Souza.Tissue Engineering Part B: Reviews.Jun 2021.215-237.
http://doi.org/10.1089/ten.teb.2020.0181
Published in Volume: 27 Issue 3: June 16, 2021
Online Ahead of Print:September 28, 2020
Online Ahead of Editing: September 1, 2020

 

[Skrej]

Re: What is the meaning of "scaffold-based" in tissue engineering / medicine?

I don't have a deep enough understanding of the medical terminology used in the article to understand much, but apparently they use some kind of a polymer to create a scaffold over which the tissue or bone can grow.

Instead of using bone grafts, which are apparently very difficult to successfully implement, as well as being very invasive, these new methods use a scaffold to help stimulate bone growth to close the gap, instead of grafting bone over the gap.

Since the technology uses a scaffold, it's scaffold-based (i.e. based on using a scaffold versus based on some other technique such as direct bone and tissue grafting).

I'm guessing that such scaffolding would allow the grafts to close smaller areas at a time instead of one big gap all at once.

 

[tedmc]

Re: What is the meaning of "scaffold-based" in tissue engineering / medicine?

I think the scaffold analogy is borrowed from scaffolding used in construction, which is a temporary framework erected as a working platform. The framework here probably acts as some kind of matrix or gauze (used in dressing wounds) , to bridge a gap thus facilitating the growth of bone or tissue across it.