Cell Therapy for Bone Regeneration-Bench to Bedside

The concept of bone tissue engineering, which began in the early 1980s, has seen tremendous growth in the numbers of research studies. One of the key areas of research has been in the field of mesenchymal stem cells, where the challenge is to produce the perfect tissue-engineered bone construct. This practical review summarizes basic and applied state-of-the-art research in the area of mesenchymal stem cells, and highlights the important translational research that has already been initiated. The topics that will be covered include the sources of stem cells in use, scaffolds, gene therapy, clinical applications in nonunions, tumors, osteonecrosis, revision arthroplasties, and spine fusion. Although significant challenges remain, there exists an exceptional opportunity to translate basic research in mesenchymal stein cell technologies into viable clinical treatments for bone regeneration. (C) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater 8913: 252-263 2009