Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Introduction
Tissue engineering crosses numerous medical and technical specialties: cell biologists,
molecular biologists, biomaterial engineers, computer-assisted designers, microscopic
imaging specialists, robotics engineers, and developers of equipment such as biore-
actors, where tissues are grown and nurtured.
Tissue engineering thus involves a combination of disciplines to achieve new
therapies and in some cases, entirely new approaches to therapy. Transplantability
of engineered tissue and artifi cial organs in combination with immunosuppressive
therapy had become a daily reality. The biggest problem is the huge number of
patients requiring that kind of interventions and new technology is needed to reduce
this defi cit.
What is TE?
There are two offi cial defi nitions accepted in scientifi c
community:
NIH Defi nition of Tissue Engineering (TE)
Tissue engineering is an emerging multidisciplinary fi eld involving biology, medicine,
and engineering that is likely to revolutionize the ways we improve the health and
quality of life for millions of people worldwide by
restoring,
maintaining, or
enhancing
tissue and organ function.
In addition to having a
therapeutic application
, where
the
tissue is either grown in a patient or outside the patient and transplanted,
tissue engineering can have diagnostic applications where the tissue is made
in vitro and used for testing drug metabolism and uptake, toxicity, and pathoge-
nicity.
The foundation of tissue engineering for either
therapeutic
or
diagnostic
applications is the ability to exploit living cells in a variety of ways. Tissue engineering
research includes:
biomaterials,
cells,
biomolecules,
engineering design aspects,
biomechanics,
informatics
to support tissue engineering and stem cell research.
