Tissue Engineering is “an interdisciplinary field that incorporates and applies the principles of engineering and life sciences toward the development of biological substitutes that restore, maintain, or improve tissue organ or function” (R. Langer, Science,
260:920-926, 1993)
It can also be explained as “the development and manipulation of laboratory grown molecules, cells, tissues, or organs to replace or support the function of defective or injured body parts” (Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative)
Why Tissue Engineering?
Why we needed Tissue Engineering, Why other Fields were not Good enough?
For the first time, researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have identified a human lungstem cell that is self-renewing and capable of forming and integrating multiple biological structures of the lung including bronchioles, alveoli and pulmonary vessels. This research is published in the May 12, 2011 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
“This research describes, for the first time, a true human lung stem cell. The discovery of this stem cell has the potential to offer those who suffer from chronic lung diseases a totally novel treatment option by regenerating or repairing damaged areas of the lung,” said Piero Anversa, MD, director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and corresponding author.
In a study published in the Jan. 30, 2011, advance online edition of Nature Neuroscience, Salk Institute of Biological Studies investigators led by Kuo-Fen Lee, PhD., show that nestin has reason for being in a completely different cell type–muscle tissue. There, it regulates formation of the so-called neuromuscular junction, the contact point between muscle cells and “their” motor neurons.
Nestin, a well-known stem cell marker, regulates the formation of neuromuscular junctions (shown in yellow), the contact points between muscles cells and their motor neurons (shown in green). Image: Courtesy ofDr. Jiefei Yang, Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Knowing this not only deepens our understanding of signaling mechanisms connecting brain to muscle, but could aid future attempts to strengthen those connections in cases of neuromuscular disease or spinal cord injury.
Scripps Research Institute scientists have converted adult skin cells directly into beating heart cells efficiently without having to first go through the laborious process of generating embryonic-like stem cells. The powerful general technology platform could lead to new treatments for a range of diseases and injuries involving cell loss or damage, such as heart disease, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Scripps Research scientists have created mature heart muscle cells directly from skin cells.
The work was published January 30, 2011, in an advance, online issue of Nature Cell Biology.
