The consequences of bone traumatisation, loss or damage, resulting from injury or disease can dramatically reduce the quality of life for a patient at a significant socioeconomic cost.The aim of bone tissue engineering is not only to repair, but also to initiate natural bone regeneration. The ultimate goal is to develop a synthetic tissue scaffold that uses biocompatible materials to produce an effective functional replacement for damaged bone tissue. Thus, avoiding all the problems associated with current bone transplantation procedures. However, repairing and regenerating damaged bone tissue is still a challenging task. Since the skeletal tissues are complex and the presence of foreign materials used to construct a tissue scaffold within the body’s environment will initiate an inflammatory response, which ultimately leads to failure of the repair procedure. This review discusses a number of materials currently being used or has the potential to be used in bone tissue engineering applications. In particular, the advantages and limitations of hydroxyapatite are discussed at length, since its desirable properties such as biocompatibility, bioactivity, osteoconductivity and osteoinductivity make it an ideal starting material for bone tissue engineering applications
