Combining stem cells and biomaterial scaffolds for constructing tissues and cell delivery

Combining stem cells with biomaterial scaffolds provides a promising strategy for engineering tissues and cellular delivery. This review seeks to describe the current types of scaffolds and evaluate their use in combination with stem cells for tissue engineering applications. Potential scaffold materials are classified as natural or synthetic and the advantages and drawbacks of each material are detailed. The materials are further divided into subcategories, which describe specific examples from the literature. Finally, conclusions about the current state of biomaterial scaffolds containing stem cells for tissue engineering applications are drawn and suggestions for the future direction of the field are given. Overall, this chapter seeks to give an overview of the available biomaterials for use in combination with directed stem cell differentiation as means of replacing diseased or damaged tissues.