Tissue engineering

Tissue engineering develops biological substitutes to restore, maintain, or improve damaged tissues and organs, often by combining cells, biomaterials, and biochemical signals.

Tissue engineering scaffold: A temporary or permanent structure that supports cells as engineered tissue forms. Scaffolds provide the architecture cells need to attach, organize, and build tissue.
Stem cell: An undifferentiated cell capable of self-renewal and producing one or more specialized cell types. Stem cells can supply specialized cells for tissues that are difficult to harvest.
Skin graft: A piece of skin transferred to cover a wound or replace damaged skin. Engineered skin substitutes address the need to cover extensive wounds.
Alexis Carrel: A French surgeon and biologist who developed methods for culturing tissues and vascular anastomosis. Carrel’s tissue-culture work helped establish experimental approaches to living tissues.
Vascularization: The development or formation of a network of blood vessels within a tissue. Large engineered tissues fail without vessels that reach cells deep inside the construct.
Cell seeding: The process of introducing cells into or onto a scaffold or culture system. Seeding places the chosen cells where they can populate the developing construct.
Biomaterial: A material designed to interact with biological systems for a medical purpose. Biomaterials provide the material basis for many tissue-engineering scaffolds.
Cartilage tissue engineering: The development of engineered constructs intended to repair or replace cartilage. Cartilage is a frequent target because it has limited natural repair capacity.
Ross Granville Harrison: An American biologist who demonstrated nerve-fiber growth from cultured frog embryonic tissue. Harrison’s experiments helped establish tissue culture as a way to study cell behavior.
Immune rejection: An immune response that attacks transplanted cells, tissues, or organs as foreign. Engineered grafts must avoid or manage immune responses after implantation.

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