Patients who lose healthy bone tissue as a result of inflammation or trauma need bone regenerative/reconstructive surgery in order to recover the function of the lost bone. To regenerate the lost bone tissue, autologous bone grafting is the current gold standard, though this technique is a great burden for patients because transplantable autologous bone must be harvested from a healthy site, which causes donor site morbidity and pain. Artificial bone substitutes have been developed as alternatives to autologous bone, though bone regeneration with them is inefficient because they lack osteo-inductive properties. Accordingly, tissue engineering of bone (bone tissue engineering) has attracted significant interest because it is considered less.
