The number of heart patients is increasing day by day. The need of new therapies is getting higher since the heart muscle has no ability to regenerate, especially after getting damaged. Heart-transplant has been one of the solutions for heart failure. However, the amount of heart donor is small compared to the demand and there are other complications that need to be concerned as well (Leor et al. 2005). Therefore, scientists have worked hard to find alternative therapies, namely cell transplantation to create and engineer the cells to possibly use as an alternative in treating heart diseases. There few heart diseases involve in tissue regeneration application, however this paper will only cover myocardial infarction and dysfunctional heart valves. Our own immune system such as macrophages help in restoring the damage in the heart for example, damage caused by myocardial infarction. Macrophages responsibilities are to clear the infarcted area and activate other cells, such as fibroblasts, endothelial cells and progenitor cells to help the healing process of the blood vessels (Mercola et al. 2011). Tissue regenerative in today’s world uses the stem cell technology to repair, replace and regenerate the cells of the injured organ or tissues. It is a combination of engineering principles and life sciences in order to create something that able to proliferate and regenerate as well as sustaining and improving its functions. This purpose can be achieved by applying functional cells, scaffolds supplementary, stimulate the growth and signal molecules to needed areas. The scaffold delivers as physical support for the cells as well as to function as organizer guiding the cell growth and differentiation (Leor et al. 2005). Leor (2005) rep... ... middle of paper ... ... the usage of bioresorbable scaffold involves by selecting certain phenotype of cell and implants it on permeable substance before being implanted to the pulmonary position. The scaffold is presume to degenerate as the cells grow. The last approach involves constructing a mold for leaflets similar to the aortic shape using the collagen constructs (Vesely 2005). The main concern with applying the stem cell therapy is the process of choosing the right cell, as in the right stages of the cell development that will be suitable for the patient in terms of safety and efficacy (Mercola). Stem cells have the possibilities to cause cancer by proliferating uncontrollably or by alteration of genetics (Weber et al. 2012). The heart is a complex organ; more research and clinical trials still need to be done although we can see the light in the field of tissue regeneration.
Through the continuing studies focused on regeneration and stem cells, scientists can try to see how manipulate totipotent cells found in humans to regenerate into any cell needed throughout the body (Wagner et al., 2012). Humans will benefit from advances in regeneration when faced with degenerative diseases that affect the muscular system or major organs necessary for life. Regeneration can help rebuild organs or muscles damaged by infection or disease and change medicine and human health (Salvetti et al., 2009).
Brendan Maher, in his article “How to Build a Heart” discusses doctor’s and engineer’s research and experimentation into the field of regenerative medicine. Maher talks about several different researchers in this fields. One is Doris Taylor, the director of regenerative medicine at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston. Her job includes harvesting organs such as hearts and lungs and re-engineering them starting with the cells. She attempts to bring the back to life in order to be used for people who are on transplant waiting lists. She hopes to be able to make the number of people waiting for transplants diminish with her research but it is a very difficult process. Maher says that researchers have had some successes when it comes to rebuilding organs but only with simples ones such as a bladder. A heart is much more complicated and requires many more cells to do all the functions it needs to. New organs have to be able to do several things in order for them to be used in humans that are still alive. They need to be sterile, able to grow, able to repair themselves, and work. Taylor has led some of the first successful experiments to build rat hearts and is hopeful of a good outcome with tissue rebuilding and engineering. Scientists have been able to make beating heart cells in a petri dish but the main issue now is developing a scaffold for these cells so that they can form in three dimension. Harold Ott, a surgeon from Massachusetts General Hospital and studied under Taylor, has a method that he developed while training. Detergent is pumped into a glass chamber where a heart is suspended and this detergent strips away everything except a layer of collagen, laminins, and other proteins. The hard part according to Ott is making s...
...n years. Matching a human heart to a particular person is difficult. Most families describe the hardest part of the heart replacement procedure to be the wait for a matching heart. Some people never find one and have to accept that their child will be outlived by them. People are suffering and dying. If embryonic stem cells were researched more, healing damaged hearts would be easier and more effective. Patients and families wouldn’t have to wait months or years to receive a heat to help their children, mothers, sisters, or brothers.
Saenz, Aaron. “Stem cells used to grow hearts...” Singularity Hub. 2009. Retrieved 2 April 2011
“Miraculous Recovery: Rat Regenerates Heart”, was the compelling article title in my Human Anatomy class that introduced me to tissue engineering. The notion of using stem cells to recreate an entire organ, of using the decellularized extracellular matrix of a rat to reanimate a heart, was simply astounding. I read more about this field and found out how it is thanks to tissue regeneration that man regrew a part of his finger after a toy helicopter accident, a boy received
The future for the total artificial heart with respect to using polyurethanes comes in the form of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), also known as polyurethane elastomers that have molecular structures similar to that of human proteins. TPUs have slower protein absorption (protein absorption is the beginning of the blood clotting process) this makes TPUs ideal candidates in the manufacturing of the total artificial heart because it provides more adhesive strength and mimics certain elements within the body. Hence, biomedical polyurethanes can lead the way to eliminate some acute health challenges that the total artificial heart currently faces. By virtue of their range of properties, polyurethanes and their new applications will continue to play an important role in the future of the total artificial heart.
The human body endures a great deal of wear and injury during its lifetime. It is for this reason that the body has several tissues that are capable of regeneration. Bone is one of those tissues that receives extensive use so it is necessary that it is strong in order to carry out its functions; however, it will occasionally face injury. Although our bones are capable of regeneration, a new method would help the elderly and others that have a more difficult time healing after injury. I viewed a “TED Talk” lecture, which discussed a new way of regenerating bone with the help of our own bodies. Molly Stevens, the head of a biomaterials lab, presented “A New Way to Grow Bone” where she discussed a new technique called “in vivo bioreactor”. She also answered why this new procedure is beneficial. Researchers like Stevens are constantly trying to find innovative new techniques and they do this by asking questions. The question that Stevens presented in the video was an intriguing one: “Can we recreate the regeneration of bone on demand and transplant it?”.
A cell located in bone marrow called a hematopoietic stem cell, gives rise to all blood cells. This stem cell is essential for life. Likewise, mesenchymal stem cells are essential in the human body. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is the only curative therapy for sickle cell disease known at this time (Kharbanda & Smith, 2014). There are no drugs out on the market which can cause regeneration of cardiac tissue or any other tissue. Mesenchymal stem cells can be used to help this regeneration to
These are the type of cells that are found in embryos that develop from fertilized eggs. These, however, are not derived from a fertilized cell inside a womans body. Embryonic cells are more difficult to work with than Adult stem cells, as they cannot be clumped up together. They must be monitored very carefully under appropriate conditions in order to remain as unassigned cells due to the fact that if clumped up, they begin to differentiate spontaneously. They can randomly turn into muscle cells, nerve cells, or any type of other cell. In order to make specific cells like heart muscle cells or blood cells, scientists must try to control the differentiation of these cells. Heart disease, traumatic spinal injury, diabetes, vision and hearing loss are all potentially curable if scientists are able to find a way to fully control these embryonic cells. Mice injected with embryonic cells have shown recovery from damage to the heart, so they may one day be utilized over other ineffective
Since organs are on short supply throughout the world scientists have taken to trying to create organs in the lab. The field of organ growing is possible thanks to recent advances in stem-cell research and is commonly known as ‘tissue engineering’. Tissue engineering uses the patient’s own cells to build new organs or replace damaged tissues in the patient’s own organs, which is called grafting.3The process works by differentiating pluri-potent stem-cells into the cells that the patient needs. The cells are then allowed to grow and multiply in a nutrient solution. When the cells are in adequate numbers they are sometimes inserted into the patients existing tissue but are most commonly used to grow a new organ or tissue graft.
...Boland, Thomas Trusk, Gabor Forgacs, and Roger R. Markwald. Organ Printing: Computer-aided Jet-based 3D Tissue Engineering. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
The medical world is no stranger to controversy surrounding its attempts to create a utopia with no disease or injury that cannot be cured. To summarize it, regenerative medicine is a new practice that allows our body to fix itself using its own cells. This would not only cure, for example, a pair of failing kidneys; it would eliminate the thousands of deaths a year of those on the waiting list for an organ donation. The ability to regenerate dying cells, which make up the tissue forming an organ, is possible with stem cells. A stem cell is a simple cell that has the ability to grow into any specialized cell in the body. There are three different forms of these stem cells found within the human body. Somatic stem cells, also referred to as
One of the benefits of human cloning is diseases cure. People can survive from life-threatening illness by therapeutic cloning, such as stem cells cloning and gene cloning. It has been achieved that patient-specific embryonic stem cells (ESCs) which have the ability to renew themselves through mitotic cell division can be created by cloning (Cyranoski, 2013; Damle, 2012). According to Damle (2012), stem cells can be grown and transformed into specialized cells which constitute various tissues, such as muscles, nerves and hearts. So people who have heart diseases, worsen kidneys or other organ illness, can transplant tissues without incompatibility and donations waiting. Additionally, anticancer strategy can be improved by gene cloning. For example, in mouse models of protate cancer, cloning a cDNA library derived from mormal prostate into the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) results in increase cure rate up to 80% (Flemming, 2011). Then Flemming (2011) underlined that cDNA libraries cloned into VSV c...
The field of regenerative medicine encompasses numerous strategies, including the use of materials and de novo generated cells, as well as various combinations thereof, to take the place of missing tissue, effectively replacing it both structurally and functionally, or to contribute to tissue healing[29]
Bioengineering is a truly fascinating and prolific field, from which we will be sure to see many advances in the future. Currently, researchers are even devising a process of scanning large wounds and printing stem cells directly onto the patient to repair it. Many things that were previously science fiction are now becoming a reality thanks to a massive team of doctors, researchers, and engineers working to implement organogenesis into common medicine, truly making this exciting new process the future of regenerative medicine.