Abstract: The repair and reconstruction of laryngeal cartilage defects caused by laryngeal cancer, stenosis, trauma is a major challenge of the Otolaryngology. Due to the absence of blood vessel and lymph, the cartilage has poor ability to repair or regenerate itself once damaged. Little is reported on the enduring cartilaginous tissue to replace damaged laryngeal cartilages. The rise of tissue engineering offers new opportunities for laryngeal cartilage reconstruction. It is critical to develop appropriate scaffold materials to support cell adhesion, proliferation and neocartilage regeneration so as to repair laryngeal cartilage. Chitosan possesses excellent biocompatibility, the ability to induce chondrocyte adhesion, proliferation and differentiation, flexibility to process, and controllable biodegradation rate. It has been one of the most promising biomaterials for cartilage tissue engineering. However, little has been reported on the application of chitosan in the laryngeal cartilage tissue engineering. This review summarized the characteristics of laryngeal cartilage and updated chitosan-based materials for cartilage tissue engineering. Based on these, possible application of chitosan based materials for the laryngeal cartilage tissue engineering was discussed.

Key words: Chitosan, Laryngeal cartilage, Tissue engineering, Scaffold