Tissue Engineering Status Week 5 Tissue engineering repair, replace, or regenerate tissues or organs develops biological substitutes that restore, maintain, or improve tissue function BASICS Tissues basic unit of function in the body while cells are the building blocks of tissues are supported by structures called extracellular matrix (ECM). ECM also relay messages from various signaling molecules Tissue Engineering 1 HOW TISSUE ENGINEERING WORKS: Tissue Engineering 2 Tissue Engineering Scaffold best scaffold or biomaterial should be the extracellular matrix of the target tissue ECM components include collagen and proteoglycans ECM provide structural support, relay signals for cell attachment, cell differentiation, migration scaffolds aim to at least partially mimic the ECM function How to fabricate tissue engineering scaffolds??? Natural polymers produced by cells provide relevant properties and cell signaling cues that more closely resemble the tissue environment but has little control over scaffold structure or architectural properties collagen, chitosan, fibronectin Synthetic polymers Tissue Engineering 3 provide better control over scaffold structure and micro-architecture composition differ from the actual ECM, they lack biomimetic cues and ECM molecules polycaprolactone, polylactic acid Natural + Synthetic polymers offers advantage of natural polymers (proteins of ECM) and synthetic polymers (mechanical support) Tissue Engineering Cells cells are used to populate matrices or scaffolds cell produce ECM to have adhesion and enhance proliferation which is important in tissue engineering once cells attach to the scaffolds and start growing and proliferating, they will be able to augment the artificial ECM Cell Sources in Bone Tissue Engineering Tissue Engineering 4 Tissue Engineering Growth Factors plays a crucial role in tissue engineering by directing the fate of cells and allowing the formation of tissues information transfer b/n cells and their microenvironment in tissue engineering and regeneration function in physiological processes: cell proliferation and cell differentiation Example: tissue engineering: Gintuit cell-based product that generates new gum tissue Tissue Engineering 5 alternative to palate graft surgery cellular sheet that has human fibroblasts, keratinocytes, human ECM proteins and bovine collagen produce cytokines and growth factors 💡 Tissue Engineering The goal is to develop powerful biological substitutes for structural and functional disorders of human health that are difficult to solve with the existing tools of medicine 6