Regenerative Medicine

 When the idea began?

Cell therapy began in the 1950's with identical twins for an organ transpantation. The next break through was in 1968 with the first bone marrow transplant. This is when hemopoetic stem cells replaced a fuctional organ and soon the bone marrow slowly developed causing it to be a great success. 2

1960's scientist thought of way to keep tissue alive outside of body which excelled to cell biology where different types of cells were puriied out of tissue samples to producer monolayer cultures of single cell type. Then scientist came up with 'organotypic cultures' whereby two or more cell types were grown together which led to tissue engineering which was introduced by YC Fung of University of California, Sandiego in 1958. 3

Why is Regenerative Medicine developed?

Regenerative medicine also empowers scientists to grow tissues and organs in the laboratory and safely implant them when the body cannot heal itself. Importantly, regenerative medicine has the potential to solve the problem of the shortage of organs available for donation compared to the number of patients that require life-saving organ transplantation, as well as solve the problem of organ transplant rejection, since the organ's cells will match that of the patient. 4

Challenges Scientist are Facing

C&EN Associate Editor Sarah Everts notes that in 2006, researchers in Japan figured out a way to use genetic engineering to coax a skin cell to become a so-called "pluripotent" stem cell — a type of cell that can potentially morph or change into any cell of the human body. The scientists achieved the result by infecting the skin cell with a virus containing certain genes instructing the cell to change.

Now chemists are trying to reproduce this cellular alchemy with drug-like substances because gene therapies have faced trouble getting into the clinic. Scientists are looking for chemical ways to go backward in cell development — to reprogram mature cells into stem cells. Others are trying to identify substances that can morph one cell directly into other cell types — for example, from a skin cell directly into a nerve cell that might treat Parkinson's disease — without the use of  at all. The ultimate goal is to be able to reprogram any cell of the body into another by means of a simple molecular kit, the article notes. But as chemists start putting together toolkits with these drug-like molecules, they face many technical hurdles as well as challenges getting acceptance from the stem cell community. 5

http://www.physorg.com/news185723375.html

 The first element of a regenerative medicine product is the use of living cells.

The types of cells that are used are dependent on the type of tissue that needs to be repaired.  Cells can originate from the patient being treated (autologous cells) or from a human donor (allogeneic cells). In certain clinical applications, it is necessary to use the patients’ own cells in order to prevent an immunologic response of the new tissue.  Regardless of cell type, the donated cells are multiplied millions of times over to create large cell banks. Cells are then withdrawn from these cell banks to build a regenerative medicine construct.

The second element is the collagen matrix (or 3-D scaffold).
All cells within tissues are separated and interlinked by a matrix (or structure).
The consistency of the matrix may vary from a liquid, as in blood; to semi-solid, as in cartilage; to a solid, as in bone.  Tissue engineers either implant cells into a matrix or create the proper conditions for the living cells to build their own three dimensional matrix.  Such a matrix provides the structure that supports the cells and creates the physiological environment for them to interact within the host tissue.

The third element consists of the cell communicators.
Cell communicators are proteins such as growth factors and cytokines. These cell communicators act as a signaling system which stimulates the cells into action and is responsible for activating the body's own native cells to initiate regeneration.
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