Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2006 Oct 22;3(10):589-601.
doi: 10.1098/rsif.2006.0124.

Challenges in tissue engineering

Yoshito Ikada  1
Affiliations
Review

Challenges in tissue engineering

Yoshito Ikada. J R Soc Interface. .

Abstract

Almost 30 years have passed since a term 'tissue engineering' was created to represent a new concept that focuses on regeneration of neotissues from cells with the support of biomaterials and growth factors. This interdisciplinary engineering has attracted much attention as a new therapeutic means that may overcome the drawbacks involved in the current artificial organs and organ transplantation that have been also aiming at replacing lost or severely damaged tissues or organs. However, the tissues regenerated by this tissue engineering and widely applied to patients are still very limited, including skin, bone, cartilage, capillary and periodontal tissues. What are the reasons for such slow advances in clinical applications of tissue engineering? This article gives the brief overview on the current tissue engineering, covering the fundamentals and applications. The fundamentals of tissue engineering involve the cell sources, scaffolds for cell expansion and differentiation and carriers for growth factors. Animal and human trials are the major part of the applications. Based on these results, some critical problems to be resolved for the advances of tissue engineering are addressed from the engineering point of view, emphasizing the close collaboration between medical doctors and biomaterials scientists.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A long way from undifferentiated to differentiated cells. CNS, central nervous system; PNS, peripheral nervous system.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Classification of regenerative medicine based on the use of scaffolds.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Schematic for absorption rate of absorbable polyesters. PGA, polyglycolide; PLGA, lactide–glycolide copolymer; P(CL/LA), ϵ-caprolactone–lactide copolymer; PLLA, poly-l-lactide; PCL, poly-ϵ-caprolactone.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Differences in biological reaction between ex vivo and in situ tissue engineering.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Entrapping of growth factor in bioabsorbable gelatin through ionic interaction. RGD, cell-adhesion oligopeptide consisting of arginine, glycine and aspartic acid.
Figure 6
Figure 6
In vivo time profiles of the radioactivity remaining after the subcutaneous implantation of gelatin hydrogels incorporating 125I-labelled bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) into the back of mice. The hydrogel water contents are (open circles) 93.8, (closed circles) 96.9, (open triangles) 97.8, (filled triangles) 99.1 and (open squares) 99.7 wt%. The symbol (filled squares) indicates the remaining radioactivity after injection of 125I-labelled BMP-2 solution.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Importance of surgery in regenerative medicine.
Figure 8
Figure 8
SEM photo of a sponge tube made from a ϵ-caprolactone–lactide copolymer (P(LA/CL)) and reinforced with polyglycolide (PGA) fibres.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Protection by inserted, resorbable stent for tubular scaffold from stricture.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Atala A. Engineering tissues and organs. Curr. Opin. Urol. 1999;9:517–526. doi:10.1097/00042307-199911000-00005 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bent A.E, Tutrone R.T, McLennan M.T, Lloyd L.K, Kennelly M.J, Badlani G. Treatment of intrinsic sphincter deficiency using autologous ear chondrocytes as a bulking agent. Neurourol. Urodyn. 2001;20:157–165. doi:10.1002/1520-6777(2001)20:2<157::AID-NAU18>3.0.CO;2-A - DOI - PubMed
    1. Brittberg M, Lindahl A, Nilson A, Ohlsson C, Isaksson O, Peterson L. Treatment of deep cartilage defects in the knee with autologous chondrocyte transplantation. N. Engl. J. Med. 1994;331:889–895. doi:10.1056/NEJM199410063311401 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cao Y, Vacanti J.P, Paige K.T, Upton J, Vacanti C.A. Transplantation of chondrocytes utilizing a polymer-cell construct to produce tissue-engineered cartilage in the shape of human ear. Plast. Reconstr. Surg. 1997;100:297–302. - PubMed
    1. Carrier R.L, Rupnick M, Langer R, Schoen F.J, Freed L.E, Vunjak-Novakovic G. Perfusion improves tissue architecture of engineered cardiac muscle. Tissue Eng. 2002a;8:175–188. doi:10.1089/107632702753724950 - DOI - PubMed

Substances

LinkOut - more resources