Advances in Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering: Innovation and Transformation of Medicine

Abstract

Humans and animals lose tissues and organs due to congenital defects, trauma, and diseases. The human body has a low regenerative potential as opposed to the urodele amphibians commonly referred to as salamanders. Globally, millions of people would benefit immensely if tissues and organs can be replaced on demand. Traditionally, transplantation of intact tissues and organs has been the bedrock to replace damaged and diseased parts of the body. The sole reliance on transplantation has created a waiting list of people requiring donated tissues and organs, and generally, supply cannot meet the demand. The total cost to society in terms of caring for patients with failing organs and debilitating diseases is enormous. Scientists and clinicians, motivated by the need to develop safe and reliable sources of tissues and organs, have been improving therapies and technologies that can regenerate tissues and in some cases create new tissues altogether. Tissue engineering and/or regenerative medicine are fields of life science employing both engineering and biological principles to create new tissues and organs and to promote the regeneration of damaged or diseased tissues and organs. Major advances and innovations are being made in the fields of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine and have a huge impact on three-dimensional bioprinting (3D bioprinting) of tissues and organs. 3D bioprinting holds great promise for artificial tissue and organ bioprinting, thereby revolutionizing the field of regenerative medicine. This review discusses how recent advances in the field of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering can improve 3D bioprinting and vice versa. Several challenges must be overcome in the application of 3D bioprinting before this disruptive technology is widely used to create organotypic constructs for regenerative medicine.

Figure 1

Inkjet bioprinting components. Thermal inkjet printers heat the print head electrically to produce pressure pulses that force droplets of biological material through a nozzle. Acoustic inkjet printers use pulses generated by piezoelectric pressure to break liquids into droplets.

Figure 2

Pneumatic and mechanical (piston and screw) systems are used in microextrusion printers.

Figure 3

Laser-assisted printers are made up of a pulse laser beam which is focused on an absorbing substrate resulting in the generation of a pressure bubble that forces biological material onto the collector substrate.

Figure 4

Stem cells such as mesenchymal stem cells can be differentiated through the use of synthetic factors and/or medicinal remedies into different cell types. Medicinal remedies have the advantage of causing less side effects and being very cheap.