Paracrine Regulation from Tissue Engineered Constructs

Abstract Historically, tissue engineering has been dominated by replicating tissue structure. As the field has evolved, it has encompassed much more than building mechanical scaffolds and has come to address the full physiological spectrum of function. This chapter discusses the recent expansion of tissue engineering solutions to include the paracrine aspect of physiologic repair and function. This chapter examines how engineered tissues can be designed not only to fill structural voids, but also to control the environment by developing endothelial cell–based paracrine solutions. In keeping with our argument that structure and function deserve equal weight, we incorporate several case study examples.