MULTIFUNCTIONAL 3D PRINTED SCAFFOLDS FOR BONE TISSUE ENGINEERING: FROM BIOACTIVE COMPOSITES TO SMART BIOMATERIALS.

Bone tissue engineering (BTE) has become a major focus for research activities in recognizing ways and means to tackle critically sized bone defects which do not heal endogenously.The development of an alternative to the more traditional approach of grafting, which are faced with mechanical functions like patient immune rejection, restricted donor tissue supply and increased risk for infection although quite successful in treatment of larger bone defects (Park et al., 2017), the BTE is a multidisciplinary area that incorporates materials science, cellular biology and fabrication techniques in order to allow regeneration using bioengineered scaffolds.