Principles of Tissue Engineering
This research highlights the need to understand more fully the role of “cell reprograming” in the development of Parkinson’s disease.
Abstract
An increasing aging population worldwide, coupled with the rising incidence of bone and joint disorders, and associated reductions in quality of life have resulted in an unmet need for more effective skeletal reparative treatments. The loss of skeletal tissue that can accompany congenital defects, trauma, injury, disease, or aging can result in significant morbidity and, furthermore, is typically associated with significant socioeconomic cost. The reparative capacity of bone has provided a natural paradigm to aid and inform tissue engineering and regenerative medicine strategies to generate new treatment options. Tissue engineering seeks to harness stem cells, innovative biomimetic scaffolds and appropriate mechanical cues and biological factors to deliver efficaciously, and more reliable bone formation strategies to improve the quality of life for many to meet this demand. Critical in the development of approaches to repair skeletal tissue is an understanding of the skeletal cell, skeletal cell function, and resolution of the issues surrounding translation of reparative strategies for patient benefit. This review provides an overview of the challenges and progress in harnessing skeletal populations for tissue regeneration including, the isolation, characterization, and examination of approaches for bone formation. This includes the importance of appropriate differentiation, vascularization, and the targeting/delivery of regenerative populations to sites of repair. This review also examines the importance of preclinical models for bone repair and their application and evaluation in translation to the clinic. Finally, we detail current translational approaches together with the opportunities that present therein for skeletal tissue repair for an increasing aging population.