7 – TISSUE ENGINEERING

Publisher Summary Tissue engineering is a biomedical engineering discipline that integrates biology with engineering to create tissues or cellular products outside the body or to make use of gained knowledge to better manage the repair of tissues within the body. Many new cellular therapies are being developed that create challenges for engineering tissue function. The implementation of cell therapies and grafts in the clinic requires the recognition and resolution of several difficult issues. These include tissue harvest, cell processing and isolation, safety testing, cell activation or differentiation, assay and medium development, storage and stability, and quality assurance and quality control issues. Furthermore, for device consideration—such as bioreactors—the function, choice, manufacturing, and treatment of biomaterials for cell growth and device construction are important. Systems analysis of metabolism, cell–cell communication, and other cellular processes also play key roles in replicating normalcy and defining bioartificial organ specifications. Finally, to successfully understand tissue function, it must be possible to quantitatively describe the underlying cellular fate processes and manipulate them.