Tissue engineering in the development of replacement technologies

Adv Exp Med Biol. 2012:745:47-57. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4614-3055-1_4.

Abstract

The field of tissue engineering is generating new scaffolds, bioreactors and methods for stimulating cells within complex cultures, with the aim of recreating the conditions under which cells form functional tissues. Hitherto, the primary focus of this field has been on clinical applications. However, there are many methods of in vitro tissue engineering that represent new opportunities in 3D cell culture and could be the basis for new replacement methods that either replace the use of a tissue isolated from an animal or the use of a living animal. This chapter presents an overview of tissue engineering and provides tissue-specific examples of recent advances.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • Organ Specificity
  • Tissue Engineering / methods*
  • Tissue Scaffolds