Table 2.

Common fabrication technologies used in meniscal tissue engineering.

Scaffold Structure	Fabrication Method	Pros & Cons	Reference
Sponge scaffold	Particulate leaching	(+) highly porous scaffolds with porosity values up to 93%	[70]
		(−) only used to produce thin membranes up to 3 mm thick
	Gas foaming	(+) organic solvent-free process	[71,72]
		(−) a structure with largely unconnected pores
		(−) non-porous external surface
	Freeze drying	(+) highly porous scaffolds with porosity values >90%	[73]
		(+) reduction of toxic solvents use
		(+) elimination of time-consuming drying and leaching processes of porogen components
		(−) instability of the emulsion
		(−) difficulty in controlling the pore size and porosity
	Phase separation	(+) highly porous scaffolds with porosity values >90%	[74,75]
		(−) limited range of pore size (<200 um)
		(−) difficult to control the micro- and macro-structure of the scaffold
Non-woven fibrous scaffold	Electrospinning	(+) nanofibrous architectures	[79,80,81,82,83]
		(+) wide range of fiber diameters
		(+) wide range of polymers can be used
		(−) used solvents can be toxic
		(−) limited capability to fabricate biomimetic structure
Oriented/woven fibrous scaffold	FDM/PED	(+) layer by layer architecture	[84,85,86]
		(+) ability to fabricate complex structures
		(−) low resolution
		(−) limited range of materials
	EHD-jetting	(+) layer-by-layer architecture	[68,87]
		(+) ability to fabricate complex structures
		(−) used solvents can be toxic