Tissue engineering is a term originally used to describe tissue produced in culture by cells seeded in various porous absorbable matrices. Studies have shown that various cell types, such as bone cells, can proliferate and maintain their phenotype when cultured in three dimensional porous matrices and gel in vitro. This has formed the basis for tissue engineering, which now include implantation of porous matrices, alone or seeded with cells, to facilitate tissue engineering (1,2).