The focus of hard tissue engineering is mostly on osteo and dental clinical
applications. Whereas hard tissues are usually under the load, biomaterials used for this
purpose must have sufficient mechanical properties as well as corrosion resistance,
enough wear resistance and biocompatibility. A lot of amazing researches are in
process throughout the world in an attempt to develop new scaffolds for tissue
engineering. Today, most research efforts are made to develop scaffolds through using
the natural and synthetic polymers for soft tissue engineering; however, metallic
scaffolds have also been the interest of in vitro and in vivo research for hard tissue
engineering. With regard to the excellent mechanical behavior of metals rather than
polymers and ceramics, metallic scaffolds have been preferred for bone tissue
engineering applications in which the tissue is under the load. Up to now, numerous
biocompatible metallic biomaterials have been utilized as implants in dental and
orthopaedic surgery in order to repair damaged bones and to provide support for bone
healing. In this article, efforts have been made to review the applications of titanium,
tantalum, nitinol and magnesium in scaffolds.
Keywords: Magnesium, Metallic biomaterials, Nitinol, Tantalum, Titanium.
