Tissue engineering and regeneration using biodegradable scaffolds

A number of people across the world suffer from various diseases or genetic defects and many of these patients die because of the lack of the availability of ideal tissue substitute and/or treatment. An important aspect of the disease is its association with the loss of tissue function. Many end-stage diseases and/or complete organ failure often require total or partial organ transplantation to restore functionality. However, such transplantation surgeries are not always successful because of the organ/ tissue rejection and also the scarcity of donors. Regenerative medicine and tissue engineering aim to improve or repair the function of a dysfunctional tissue or organ. In spite of the many advances in tissue engineering methods, the field of regenerative medicine still awaits acceptable designs of bioscaffolds that are clinically tenable. Design of scaffolds and the nature of biomaterial used to make the scaffolds dictate cell behavior and function. Several approaches are currently being tried to optimize the design and improve the quality of the biomaterials. Innervation, vascularization and proper cell differentiation that are influenced by the biomaterials, are few challenges that need to be optimized along with the choice of stem cells that can be employed. Extracellular matrix scaffolds have proven to be a better choice for cartilage and bone repair while the fibrin, polyglycolate and polylactate etc are still being developed. Future research and technological innovations are still needed for a better choice of biomaterials that can support the tissue regeneration without causing any immune or inflammatory response from the host and which last for longer periods.