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Tissue-Engineered Approach to Tendon and Ligament Reconstruction: Current Trends

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Sports Injuries

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Abstract

Current graft choices for tendon and ligament reconstruction include autograft and allografts, with more than 900,000 allografts used for reconstructions annually in the United States. Given the limitations of autografts and allografts, both synthetic and naturally derived tissue-engineered scaffolds have been developed. Despite its early success, synthetic grafts have been associated with a high incidence of chronic foreign-body inflammation, debris-induced synovitis, mechanical limitations, and graft failure. Therefore, in recent years the focus has shifted to the use of naturally derived scaffolds and an evolving discipline called “functional tissue engineering” which uses a combination of stem cells, biocompatible scaffolds, and mechanical stimulation to produce tissue-engineered constructs suitable to replace or repair load-bearing structures such as tendons and ligaments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, 27157-1070, NC, USA

    Thorsten M. Seyler, Daniel N. Bracey, Sandeep Mannava & Gary G. Poehling

  2. Molecular Medicine and Translational Science Program, Medical Center Boulevard, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, 27157, NC, USA

    Thorsten M. Seyler & Daniel N. Bracey

  3. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Division of Pediatric Orthopedics Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati, 3333 Burnet Avenue, ML 2017, 45229, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Patrick W. Whitlock

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  1. Thorsten M. Seyler
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  2. Daniel N. Bracey
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  3. Sandeep Mannava
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  4. Gary G. Poehling
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  5. Patrick W. Whitlock
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Correspondence to Thorsten M. Seyler .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Orthopedics & Traumatology, Hacettepe University Fac. Medicine, Ankara, Turkey

    Mahmut Nedim Doral

  2. Gothenburg, Sweden

    Jon Karlsson

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Seyler, T.M., Bracey, D.N., Mannava, S., Poehling, G.G., Whitlock, P.W. (2014). Tissue-Engineered Approach to Tendon and Ligament Reconstruction: Current Trends. In: Doral, M., Karlsson, J. (eds) Sports Injuries. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36801-1_241-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36801-1_241-1

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