Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine - New Initiatives for Individual Treatment Offers

Tissue engineering (TE) combines the three components - cells, scaffolds and growth factors - to generate tissues for functional replacement of damaged or diseased organs upon transplantation. Further, regenerative medicine (RM) combines TE with other strategies such as cell-based therapies, gene therapy, and immunomodulation, using stem and progenitor cells from various sources in order to induce in vivo organ regeneration [1,2,3]. TERM, the combination of TE and RM, combines basic sciences such as nanotechnology, biomechanics, bioinformatics, material science, and polymer chemistry with cell biology and medical sciences to promote functional organo(re)genesis. In the light of a growing and aging population with ever increasing demand of organ replacements, TERM might become the appropriate strategy to meet future needs of the patients [4].