Development of Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering Using Polysaccharides

In a living body most of cells in tissues exist in hydrogel so called "extracellular matrix (ECM)" composed of proteins, polysaccharides and proteoglycans ECM plays an important role on the supply of a favorable environment to survive, moderate diffusions of nutritious substances and wastes, control of cell-cell communications, mechanical strength, and so on. Tissue cells can survive only when they attach any matrices. Therefore in order to culture tissue cells in vitro we must develop suitable scaffolds, so called artificial extracellular matrix. In this lecture, as a typical example, I will discuss the application of polysaccharides as an artificial extracellular matrix for some tissue regeneration.