BACKGROUND:: Tissue engineering technology provides novel methods for the regeneration of periodontal tissue. OBJECTIVE:: To summarize the recent progress of periodontal tissue engineering seed cells, growth factor and scaffold materials. METHODS:: The first author searched the PubMed database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed) on periodontal tissue engineering study, using the key words of periodontal tissue engineering in English; at the same time CBM database from January 2009 to December 2013 was also retrieved for periodontal tissue engineering literature, using the key words of periodontal tissue engineering in Chinese. Repetitive studies were excluded, and finally 30 articles were included to review. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:: Study showed that, periodontal ligament stem cells have good application prospect in periodontal tissue regeneration; bone marrow stromal stem cells is the ideal seed cells for the repair of periodontal tissue defects; dental follicle cells have pluripotent differentiation potentials and they can form periodontal tissue. A variety of biologically active molecules have been shown to have a strong function of repairing periodontal tissue, the growth factors associated with periodontal tissue engineering are mainly platelet-derived growth factor, bone morphogenetic protein, transforming growth factor â, insulin-like growth factor, basic fibroblast growth factor, and enamel matrix derivative. Currently the scaffold materials used in periodontal tissue engineering can be divided into natural biological materials and artificially synthetic materials. How to choose the best seed cells, cytokines and scaffold complexes needs to be further improved. FUNDING:: the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81100776; Military Medical Science Research during the Twelfth Five-Year Plan, No. CWS11J118; Clinical Scientific Research Program of General Hospital of Chinese PLA, No. 2013FC-TSYS-2007Lu BW, Xu LL, Zhang Y, Han G. New progress of periodontal tissue engineering: problems and applications. Zhongguo Zuzhi Gongcheng Yanjiu. 2014;18(24):3900–3905.