Lessons from developmental biology for regenerative medicine

Abstract

The ultimate goal of regenerative medicine is the functional restoration of lost or damaged tissues and organs. Since most tissues in man lack true regenerative properties and instead respond to injury with an inflammatory response and scar tissue formation, regenerative medicine strategies that include combinations of cells, scaffolds, and bioactive molecules to replace injured or missing tissues have been developed. The physical, chemical, and electrical cues that define the microenvironmental niche and the effect of these influences upon cell behavior during development are of interest to developmental biologists, with obvious overlap to the interest of the regenerative medicine field. This manuscript provides an overview of current approaches for tissue restoration being investigated in the field of regenerative medicine and attempts to identify areas of mutual beneficial interest with the field of developmental biology.

Tissue engineered bone using select growth factors: A comprehensive review of animal studies and clinical translation studies in man

“…The authors envisage coordinated spatiotemporal release of select growth factors recapitulating in vivo signalling cascades leading to bone tissue formation. The importance of understanding the developmental processes underpinning bone tissue formation, and their importance in contextualising signalling cascades and the growth factors involved in regenerative medicine is gaining prominence, as understanding these processes is vital to informed clinical bone therapies (Smith et al, 2013;Turner et al, 2013). The data presented here demonstrate the complex and convoluted interplay between administered growth factors with variable success for bone tissue formation dependent on species, dosage and combination.…”

An Official American Thoracic Society Workshop Report 2015. Stem Cells and Cell Therapies in Lung Biology and Diseases

“…Moderated by Peter Lelkes, Ph.D. (Temple University), the main aim of this session was to review recent progress in terms of the techniques used for tissue processing, both decellularization and recellularization, as well as in enhancing our necessary mechanistic understanding necessary to, perhaps, bring bioengineering approaches to lung regeneration into the realm of clinical reality. (91). In presenting more recent studies on the use of organ-specific decellularized extracellular matrix (ECM) scaffolds for engineering a variety of whole visceral organs, (e.g., lung, liver, heart, and kidney) (92), Dr. Badylak stressed the importance of fine tuning harvesting methods, including decellularization techniques.…”

An Official American Thoracic Society Workshop Report: Stem Cells and Cell Therapies in Lung Biology and Diseases

“…Some of the progress has been more incremental (e.g., the optimization of protocols for using decellularized and recellualrized lung scaffolds, both in rodents and more recently in larger animal models and in human lungs (7,(72)(73)(74)(75)(76)(77)(78)(79)(80)(81)(82)(83)(84)(85)(86)(87)(88)(89)(90) (91). In presenting more recent studies on the use of organ-specific decellularized extracellular matrix (ECM) scaffolds for engineering a variety of whole visceral organs, (e.g., lung, liver, heart, and kidney) (92), Dr. Badylak stressed the importance of fine tuning harvesting methods, including decellularization techniques.…”