Related Research Articles
An artificial organ is a human made organ device or tissue that is implanted or integrated into a human — interfacing with living tissue — to replace a natural organ, to duplicate or augment a specific function or functions so the patient may return to a normal life as soon as possible. The replaced function does not have to be related to life support, but it often is. For example, replacement bones and joints, such as those found in hip replacements, could also be considered artificial organs.
Tissue engineering is a biomedical engineering discipline that uses a combination of cells, engineering, materials methods, and suitable biochemical and physicochemical factors to restore, maintain, improve, or replace different types of biological tissues. Tissue engineering often involves the use of cells placed on tissue scaffolds in the formation of new viable tissue for a medical purpose but is not limited to applications involving cells and tissue scaffolds. While it was once categorized as a sub-field of biomaterials, having grown in scope and importance it can is considered as a field of its own.
Organ culture is the cultivation of either whole organs or parts of organs in vitro. It is a development from tissue culture methods of research, as the use of the actual in vitro organ itself allows for more accurate modelling of the functions of an organ in various states and conditions.
The amniotic fluid is the protective liquid contained by the amniotic sac of a gravid amniote. This fluid serves as a cushion for the growing fetus, but also serves to facilitate the exchange of nutrients, water, and biochemical products between mother and fetus.
Transitional epithelium is a type of stratified epithelium. Transitional epithelium is a type of tissue that changes shape in response to stretching. The transitional epithelium usually appears cuboidal when relaxed and squamous when stretched. This tissue consists of multiple layers of epithelial cells which can contract and expand in order to adapt to the degree of distension needed. Transitional epithelium lines the organs of the urinary system and is known here as urothelium. The bladder, for example, has a need for great distension.
Regenerative medicine deals with the "process of replacing, engineering or regenerating human or animal cells, tissues or organs to restore or establish normal function". This field holds the promise of engineering damaged tissues and organs by stimulating the body's own repair mechanisms to functionally heal previously irreparable tissues or organs.
Organ printing utilizes techniques similar to conventional 3D printing where a computer model is fed into a printer that lays down successive layers of plastics or wax until a 3D object is produced. In the case of organ printing, the material being used by the printer is a biocompatible plastic. The biocompatible plastic forms a scaffold that acts as the skeleton for the organ that is being printed. As the plastic is being laid down, it is also seeded with human cells from the patient's organ that is being printed for. After printing, the organ is transferred to an incubation chamber to give the cells time to grow. After a sufficient amount of time, the organ is implanted into the patient.
The stem cell controversy is the consideration of the ethics of research involving the development and use of human embryos. Most commonly, this controversy focuses on embryonic stem cells. Not all stem cell research involves human embryos. For example, adult stem cells, amniotic stem cells, and induced pluripotent stem cells do not involve creating, using, or destroying human embryos, and thus are minimally, if at all, controversial. Many less controversial sources of acquiring stem cells include using cells from the umbilical cord, breast milk, and bone marrow, which are not pluripotent.
The two main methods for replacing bladder function involve either redirecting urine flow or replacing the bladder in situ. Replacement can be done with an artificial urinary bladder, an artificial organ.
In biology, explant culture is a technique to organotypically culture cells from a piece or pieces of tissue or organ removed from a plant or animal. The term explant can be applied to samples obtained from any part of the organism. The extraction process is extensively sterilized, and the culture can be typically used for two to three weeks.
Anthony Atala is an American bioengineer, urologist, and pediatric surgeon. He is the W.H. Boyce professor of urology, the founding director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and the chair of the Department of Urology at Wake Forest School of Medicine in North Carolina. His work focuses on the science of regenerative medicine: "a practice that aims to refurbish diseased or damaged tissue using the body's own healthy cells".
Amniotic stem cells are the mixture of stem cells that can be obtained from the amniotic fluid as well as the amniotic membrane. They can develop into various tissue types including skin, cartilage, cardiac tissue, nerves, muscle, and bone. The cells also have potential medical applications, especially in organ regeneration.
In tissue engineering, neo-organ is the final structure of a procedure based on transplantation consisting of endogenous stem/progenitor cells grown ex vivo within predesigned matrix scaffolds. Current organ donation faces the problems of patients waiting to match for an organ and the possible risk of the patient's body rejecting the organ. Neo-organs are being researched as a solution to those problems with organ donation. Suitable methods for creating neo-organs are still under development. One experimental method is using adult stem cells, which use the patients own stem cells for organ donation. Currently this method can be combined with decellularization, which uses a donor organ for structural support but removes the donors cells from the organ. Similarly, the concept of 3-D bioprinting organs has shown experimental success in printing bioink layers that mimic the layer of organ tissues. However, these bioinks do not provide structural support like a donor organ. Current methods of clinically successful neo-organs use a combination of decellularized donor organs, along with adult stem cells of the organ recipient to account for both the structural support of a donor organ and the personalization of the organ for each individual patient to reduce the chance of rejection.
Three dimensional (3D) bioprinting is the utilization of 3D printing–like techniques to combine cells, growth factors, bio-inks, and/or biomaterials to fabricate biomedical parts that imitate natural tissue characteristics, form functional biofilms, and assist in the removal of pollutants. 3D bioprinting has uses in fields such as wastewater treatment, environmental remediation, and corrosion prevention. 3D bioprinting can produce functional biofilms which can assist in a variety of situations. The 3D bioprinted biofilms host functional microorganisms which can facilitate pollutant removal. Generally, 3D bioprinting can utilize a layer-by-layer method to deposit materials known as bio-inks to create tissue-like structures that are later used in various medical and tissue engineering fields. 3D bioprinting covers a broad range of bioprinting techniques and biomaterials. Currently, bioprinting can be used to print tissue and organ models to help research drugs and potential treatments. Nonetheless, translation of bioprinted living cellular constructs into clinical application is met with several issues due to the complexity and cell number needed to create functional organs. However, innovations span from bioprinting of extracellular matrix to mixing cells with hydrogels deposited layer by layer to produce the desired tissue. In addition, 3D bioprinting has begun to incorporate the printing of scaffolds which can be used to regenerate joints and ligaments.
Tengion, Inc. is an American development-stage regenerative medicine company founded in 2003 with financing from J&J Development Corporation, HealthCap and Oak Investment Partners, which is headquartered in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Its goals are discovering, developing, manufacturing and commercializing a range of replacement organs and tissues, or neo-organs and neo-tissues, to address unmet medical needs in urologic, renal, gastrointestinal, and vascular diseases and disorders. The company creates these human neo-organs from a patient’s own cells or autologous cells, in conjunction with its Organ Regeneration Platform. The company declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy in December 2014, and it, along with its assets and tissue engineering samples, have been bought back by its creditors and former executives as of March 2015. The purchase was expedited, so that time-sensitive research can continue.
Genital regeneration encompasses various forms of treatment for genital anomalies. The goal of these treatments is to restore form and function to male and female genitalia by taking advantage of innate responses in the body. In order to do this, doctors have experimented with stem cells and extracellular matrix to provide a framework for regenerating missing structures. More research is needed to successfully move the science from laboratory trials to routine procedures.
Regeneration in humans is the regrowth of lost tissues or organs in response to injury. This is in contrast to wound healing, or partial regeneration, which involves closing up the injury site with some gradation of scar tissue. Some tissues such as skin, the vas deferens, and large organs including the liver can regrow quite readily, while others have been thought to have little or no capacity for regeneration following an injury.
Ethics of bioprinting is a sub-field of ethics concerning bioprinting. Some of the ethical issues surrounding bioprinting include equal access to treatment, clinical safety complications, and the enhancement of human body.
Akhilesh K. Gaharwar is an Indian academic and a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University. The goal of his lab is to understand the cell-nanomaterials interactions and to develop nanoengineered strategies for modulating stem cell behavior for repair and regeneration of damaged tissue.
Microgravity bioprinting is the utilization of 3D bioprinting techniques under microgravity conditions to fabricate highly complex, functional tissue and organ structures. The zero gravity environment circumvents some of the current limitations of bioprinting on Earth including magnetic field disruption and biostructure retention during the printing process. Microgravity bioprinting is one of the initial steps to advancing in space exploration and colonization while furthering the possibilities of regenerative medicine.
References
- ↑ Costa, João B.; Park, Jihoon; Jorgensen, Adam M.; Silva-Correia, Joana; Reis, Rui L.; Oliveira, Joaquim M.; Atala, Anthony; Yoo, James J.; Lee, Sang Jin (2020-10-13). "3D Bioprinted Highly Elastic Hybrid Constructs for Advanced Fibrocartilaginous Tissue Regeneration". Chemistry of Materials. 32 (19): 8733–8746. doi:10.1021/acs.chemmater.0c03556. ISSN 0897-4756. PMC 8294671 . PMID 34295019.
- ↑ "A Record of Firsts". Wake Forest School of Medicine. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
- ↑ "Lab-grown bladders 'a milestone'". BBC News. 3 April 2006.
- ↑ Atala A, Bauer SB, Soker S, Yoo JJ, Retik AB (April 2006). "Tissue-engineered autologous bladders for patients needing cystoplasty". Lancet. 367 (9518): 1241–6. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(06)68438-9 . PMID 16631879. S2CID 17892321.
- ↑ Weiss, Rick (8 January 2007). "Scientists See Potential In Amniotic Stem Cells". The Washington Post.
- ↑ "National Museum of Health and Medicine (NMHM): Military Medical Museum Acquires Prototype "Bioprinter" From Wake Forest Institute For Regenerative Medicine". www.medicalmuseum.mil. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
- ↑ Kang, Hyun-Wook; Lee, Sang Jin; Ko, In Kap; Kengla, Carlos; Yoo, James J; Atala, Anthony (March 2016). "A 3D bioprinting system to produce human-scale tissue constructs with structural integrity". Nature Biotechnology. 34 (3): 312–319. doi:10.1038/nbt.3413. ISSN 1087-0156. PMID 26878319. S2CID 9073831.
- ↑ Kovaleski, Dave (2019-10-11). "HHS gives grant to study impact of chlorine gas on lungs". Homeland Preparedness News. Retrieved 2019-10-23.
- ↑ “I absolutely stand by the validity of the science” says author of energy field paper now flagged by journal – Retraction Watch
