The porous textile fabrics as scaffolds combining with extracellular matrix
proteins (e.g. fibronectin, collagen etc), and living cells give a possibility to develop
biological tissues for human body repair, such as organ transplants. The flexible
biotextiles act as scaffold materials to provide support for cell adhesion, growth and
proliferation. A key requirement for an artificial implant is to exactly mimick the
biological and mechanical functions of an injured tissue or organ to be replaced without
evoking an immune response from the host. Due to their easily tunable properties, the
“weak” textiles, such as nonwoven, woven, knitted structures, braided structures etc, are
promising candidate for tissue engineering applications. These structures provide
compliance, porosity and 3D microstructure to induce cell attachment and proliferation
to regenerate complex tissues. In this chapter, scaffold designing in tissue engineering
using textile structures has been reviewed. The chapter elaborates on 3-D fabric (woven,
knitting, nonwoven etc.) and their composites for designing scaffolds with required
mechanical and biological properties.
Keywords: Biotextile, Tissue Engineering, Scaffolds, Extracellular Matrix
(ECM).
