Bone defects cause significant socio-economic costs worldwide, while the clinical “gold standard” of bone repair, the autologous bone graft, has limitations including limited graft supply, secondary injury, chronic pain and infection. Therefore, to reduce surgical complexity and speed up bone healing, innovative therapies are needed. Bone tissue engineering (BTE), a new cross-disciplinary science arisen in the 21st century, creates artificial environments specially constructed to facilitate bone regeneration and growth. By combining stem cells, scaffolds and growth factors, BTE fabricates biological substitutes to restore the functions of injured bone. Although BTE has made many valuable achievements, there remain some unsolved challenges. In this review, the latest research and application of stem cells, scaffolds, and growth factors in BTE are summarized with the aim of providing references for the clinical application of BTE.