Tissue engineering
Tissue engineering
Tissue engineering is a biomedical engineering discipline integrating biology with engineering to create tissues or cellular products outside the body [ex vivo] or to make use of gained knowledge to better manage the repair of tissues within the body [in vivo]. This discipline requires understanding of diverse biological fields, including cell and molecular biology, physiology and systems integration, stem cell proliferation and differentiation with lineage attribites, extracellular matrix chemistry and compounds, and endocrinology. It also requires knowledge of many engineering fields, including biochemical and mechanical engineering, polymer sciences, bioreactor design and application, mass transfer analysis of gas and liquid metabolites, and biomaterials.
Translation of tissue engineering constructs to clinical applications will involve other scientific disciplines so that novel engineering tissues will be easily accepted and used by clinicians. The combination of these sciences has spawned the field of regenerative medicine which has, at present, two strategic clinical goals:
- Cell therapies for the repair of damaged tissues, involving injection or engraftment of cells or cellular suspensions-sometimes in combination with scaffolding material, or
- Establishment of tissue ex vivo for use as grafts or extracorporeal organs to assist or supplement ailing in vivo organs.
Clinical trials with cell therapies or extracorporeal organs are underway for cartilage, bone, skin, neural, and liver tissues-and are projected as repair mechanisms for many other tissues within the coming years. Both scientific and economic issues will define the success of these future therapeutic modalities.
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