Synthetic bone grafts – companies are developing, manufacturing and marketing synthetic bone graft materials, designed to mimic the composite structure of human bone and absorbable implants for fixing grafts in place. The products are used as scaffolds to attract and keep cells at the injury site and encourage bone regeneration. Some grafts have been mixed with stem cells to further promote healing and formation of new bone at the injury site. For the treatment of fractures and ligament injuries.

Donor and synthetic ligaments - Grafts taken from cadavers (“allografts”) have been used since the mid 1980s to replace damaged cruciate ligaments. More recently, tissue –engineered products using bovine collagen and synthetic biomaterials have been used. Synthetic grafts made of different materials have also been utilised for many years either in combination with or instead of a biological ACL graft.

Osteochondral scaffolds - Osteochondral defects affect both the articular cartilage and the underlying subchondral bone. This has led to the development of bilayered scaffolds to promote individual growth of both cartilage and bone layers within a single integrated implant. Research has centred on the use of four major groups of materials: natural and synthetic polymers, metallic materials, inorganic materials (ceramics, glasses) and composites of these. These scaffolds can be used with surgery such as microfracture, or seeded with autologous or xeno-derived chondrocytes, adult or embryonic stem cells and/or the incorporation of specific growth factors.