Introduction - Microsurgery: Advances, Simulations, and Applications - page 28

of death in high level of burn injury cases. However, our skin has a
high capacity of regeneration.
Artiicial skin contains artiicial corium, cultured epidermis, and
cultured skin. Cultured skin has been fabricated by culturing skin
cells in a clean room. On October 2007, Japan Tissue Engineering
Co. Ltd. oficially received government approval to culture and to
commercialize the autologous cultured epidermis “JACE” for serious
burn treatment in Japan. This was the irst case of commercial
product related to tissue engineering in Japan.

1.3.1.6 Artificial bone

Similarly to skin, bone has high capacity of regeneration. Artiicial
bone is used to compensate the damaged or lost part of bone. In
general, artiicial bone is implanted into the patient's body by a
surgical procedure that replaces damaged part due to crush fracture
or tumor. Before 1990, biocompatible materials such as titanium,
ceramics, or coral were used as artiicial bone. However, periodic
maintenance was necessary due to aged deterioration and user's
aging. Since the 1990s, biodegradable materials that are candidates
to be alternated gradually by natural and regenerated bone have
been investigated and developed. Apatite is a representative material
of biodegradable polymer. More recently, 3D printing has been used
to achieve mass production of artiicial bone.

1.3.2 Cell Implantation-Based Regeneration

Human body consists of 60 trillion of cells. Originally our body comes
from only one fertile egg, and it is maintained with continuous growth
and differentiation of cells. If we reveal the mechanism of cellular
action, there is a possibility of tissue regeneration by injecting cells
to a damaged part of tissue. One option for that are somatic stem
cells. The function of tissues and organs can be regained by injecting
these cells to a patient's body. The regeneration of tissues by means
of injecting stem cells inside a patient's body is called “stem cell
engineering” [74]. It is dificult to answer to the question of “ When
will the cell implantation-based treatment be clinically applied? ”
As described below, a part of application has already started and
cultured cells are already being implanted as artiicial skin. In
addition, osteogenesis by means of extraction and implantation of
bone marrow luid has been recognized as a standard method of