Tissue Engineering Market: Developing Alternatives to Organ Transplants
What is Tissue Engineering?
Tissue engineering is an interdisciplinary field that applies principles of engineering and life sciences toward developing biological substitutes that restore, maintain, or improve tissue function. The main goal of tissue engineering is to develop alternative methods of repairing or replacing damaged tissues and organs.
The Need for Tissue Engineering
There is a large shortage of organs available for transplantation compared to the number of people in need of organ transplants. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), there are over 107,000 people on the organ transplant waiting list in the United States alone. Every day, 22 people die while waiting for an organ transplant that never arrives. Tissue Engineering aims to solve this problem by creating tissues and organs in the laboratory that can be safely implanted to replace diseased or damaged tissues without rejecting by the host's immune system.
How Tissue Engineering Works
Tissue Engineering involves taking cells from a patient or donor and expanding them in culture to have enough cells to seed onto or into a scaffold. The scaffold provides a structure for the cells to adhere, grow, and organize into the three dimensional tissue or organ. Scaffolds can be made from biological materials like collagen and fibronectin or synthetic materials like biodegradable polymers. As the cells grow, they also secrete proteins and other molecules that help to develop extracellular matrices. Eventually tissue-specific functional properties begin to develop. After sufficient tissue growth and development, the construct can potentially be implanted as a transplant.
Applications of Tissue Engineering
Researchers are working on engineering many different types of tissues and organs that have potential applications in regenerative medicine. Some key applications include:
Skin
Significant progress has been made in developing skin substitutes to treat burns and other wounds. Some skin substitutes use keratinocyte and fibroblast cells grown on biologic scaffolds, while others involve culturing skin cells on biodegradable synthetic materials. Engineered skin constructs are routinely used clinically.
Blood Vessels
Tissue engineered blood vessels hold promise for treating cardiovascular diseases. Scientists are working on seeding smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells onto biodegradable polymer or natural scaffolds to form small-diameter blood vessel constructs for bypass grafting or replacement of damaged vessels.
Bone and Cartilage
Bone and cartilage tissue engineering is being explored for treating skeletal defects from injuries, diseases, and joint degeneration. Mesenchymal stem cells, chondrocytes or osteoblasts are seeded onto 3D porous scaffolds made of ceramics, polymers or natural materials to promote tissue regeneration. Successful preclinical and clinical studies have been conducted.
Bladder
Due to the availability of urothelial and smooth muscle cells, tissue engineering has made significant advances in creating bladder substitutes. Acellular matrices and cell-seeded scaffolds show promise for treating conditions like spina bifida that require bladder replacement. Clinical trials of engineered bladder constructs are ongoing.
Liver
The liver has a remarkable capacity for regeneration so effective tissue engineered liver grafts may one day treat end-stage liver diseases like cirrhosis. Approaches involve seeding hepatic cells onto decellularized liver matrix or 3D polymeric scaffolds. However, engineering a whole functional liver remains a great challenge.
Challenges and Future Outlook
While significant progress has been made, there are still many challenges to overcome before tissue engineered organs can become a viable alternative to organ transplants. Ensuring constructs develop sufficient vasculature, are durable, and elicit no immune rejection response are key issues being addressed. The use of patient-specific stem cells and development of organ chips recreate whole organ function are promising new directions. With continued research and innovation, it is hoped that tissue engineering and regenerative medicine will one day help solve the critical shortage of donor organs
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