Tissue engineering is an interdisciplinary field that applies engineering and life science principles toward developing biological substitutes to restore or improve tissue and organ function. It involves harvesting a patient's cells and growing them on a biodegradable scaffold to form new living tissue that can replace damaged tissue or organs. This could help solve the shortage of donor organs by providing alternatives to organ transplantation and eliminate the risk of rejection. While challenges remain in replicating complex organs, tissue engineering has the potential to save lives, heal injuries, and improve quality of life by providing permanent solutions for those suffering from organ defects or failures.

1. By: Cindy Veloso

2. “Imagine a world where
transplant patients do not wait
for a donor or a world where
burn victims leave the hospital
without disfiguring scars.
Imagine implant materials
that can "grow", reshape
themselves, or change their
function as the body requires”
-Professor M.V. Sefton

3. What is Tissue Engineering?
 The use of a combination of cells, engineering and
materials methods, and suitable biochemical and physico-
chemical factors to improve or replace biological functions.
 An interdisciplinary field that applies the principles of
engineering and life sciences toward the development of
biological substitutes that restore, maintain, or improve
tissue function or a whole organ.
 – Langer and J. Vacanti “Tissue Engineering”. Science 260: 920-6,
1993
 In other words Tissue Engineering is using a persons cells
to create a new artificial fully alive tissue or organ that can
replace or improve/heal the old one in the body.

4. Goals of Tissue
Engineering!
 Save lives
 Replace a structure with a
completely living structure
 Improve or replace tissues such as:
Tissue
Skin
Muscle
Bone
 Improve or replace organs such as:
Heart
Kidney
Liver

5. Why Tissue Engineering is
Important
 Supply of donor organs cannot keep up with
demand
 Other available therapies such as surgical
reconstruction, drug therapy, synthetic
prostheses, and medical devices aren’t always
successful
 It will eliminate any risk of organ rejection
because the new organ would be made from
the person’s own tissue.
 It repairs tissues, organs, and bones
successfully
 Victims of organ/tissue defects will not have to
suffer

6. STEPS: TISSUE ENGINEERING

7. The general principles of tissue
engineering involve combining living
cells with a natural/synthetic support
or scaffold that is also biodegradable
to build a three dimensional living
construct that is functionally,
structurally and mechanically equal
to or better than the tissue that is to
be replaced.

8. Step 1:
GET TISSUE SAMPLE (CELLS)
FROM THE BODY
 Patients own cells
 Researches have to break tissue
apart using, enzymes that digest
the extracellular material that
normally holds cells together
 Cells need structure, nutrients, and
oxygen Scaffold

9. Step 2: GROWING CELLS INTO NEW TISSUE
 Cells NEED a scaffold
 For tissue regeneration
 Scaffold: gives cells structure on which
they need to grow, without them cells
are free floating, cannot connect with
each other, communicate or form
tissue.
 Scaffold is biocompatible and
biodegradable
 Scaffolds provide the structure that
cells need for a certain period of time
until they have formed enough tissue
to have their own structure.
 Scaffold dissolves once structure of
cells is formed.
Above a biodegradable scaffold
serves as a temporary environment
Depending upon the structural and where implanted cells divide,
biological requirements of the tissue in differentiate and grow into the
question, various types of scaffolds have
specific type of tissue cell required
been developed from substances found in
(skin)
the body as well as synthetic substances.

10. Step 3:
IMPLANTING NEW TISSUE
 Bioengineered Tissue Implants Regenerate
Damaged Knee Cartilage ScienceDaily(July 5, Example
2006)
 Cartilage was removed from 23 patients with an
average age of 36 years. After growing the cells
in culture for 14 days, the researchers seeded
them onto scaffolds made of esterified hyaluronic
acid, grew them for another 14 days on the
scaffolds, and then implanted them into the
injured knees of the study patients.
 Cartilage regeneration was seen in ten of 23
patients, including in some patients with pre-
existing early osteoarthritis of the knee
secondary to traumatic injury. Maturation of the
implanted, tissue-engineered cartilage was
evident as early as 11 months after implantation.

11. Pros:
 Help a person conquer a disease or illness
 Person will go through fewer surgeries
 No chance of rejection
 People would not have to wait for an organ
donor
 People would not have to donate their
organs after they die
 This technology could lead to even greater
technologies in the future
 Permanent solution

12. Cons:
 Medicine researchers face many
difficulties in constructing suitable
scaffolds
 It takes a lot of research and
understanding of each organ and tissue
 Ethical issues
 Cells have to stay alive inside the body
and continue to function which is difficult
for researchers to discover for complex
organs

13. In Canada
During 2010, 2,153 organ transplants were performed:
 deceased kidney donors = 749 transplants
 living kidney donors = 485 transplants
 deceased liver donors = 379 transplants
 living liver donors = 64 transplants
 heart = 167 transplants
 lung (single or double) = 178 transplants
 pancreas = 23 transplants
 islet cell = 44 transplants
 intestine = 1 transplant
 ‘other’ types of combined organs (such as heart-lung; liver-kidney etc.)
= 63 transplants
Unfortunately, another 4,529 Canadians remained on the waiting list for a
life-saving organ transplant, and 247 patients died while waiting.

14. (Before and After Tissue
Engineering) What the Future
will look like
Before: Victims of burns and severe injuries have permanent scars and
disfiguration. People with organ defects, for example heart defects have to
wait until someone dies and can provide a heart transplant. This can take
years and years and there is a chance that their body could reject the
transplant. People with these defects may have to go through numerous
surgeries even before having a transplant which can cost them a lot of
money. Many lives are lost while waiting for an organ donor and from
rejection of the transplant. Tons of money is spent for research on tissue
engineering and researchers are continuing to find a way to create more
complex organs. Tissues and organs, illnesses are hard to treat.
After: People will not have to wait long periods of time before their organ
or tissue transplants because they will not need to rely on organs from
others. They will not have to worry about their body rejecting their new
organ because it will be created using their own tissue cells. Patients
will only have to undergo one surgery. Their organ or tissue will have a
permanent function. Many lives will be saved and improved by this
technology. Burned victims will be easily treated and their skin able to
recover. Bones, cartilage you name it can all improved. Common
problems like arthritis will all be treated. Researchers will be able to
continue their research from these discoveries and perhaps discover
more. People will be able to buy lab created organs and tissues.

15. Take a look towards
the future:

16. Bibliography:
 Canadian Institute for Health Information. E-Statistics Report on Transplant, Waiting
List and Donor Statistics (2010). (n.d.). CIHI Home. Retrieved May 7, 2012, from
http://www.lhsc.on.ca/About_Us/MOTP/Statistics/index.htm
 pboinot, J. (n.d.). Hinnovic | Tissue Engineering : A miraculous solution to organ
shortages?. Hinnovic | Health Innovations in Context / Les innovations en santé:
pour s’y retrouver!. Retrieved May 6, 2012, from http://www.hinnovic.org/tissue-
engineering-a-miraculous-solution-to-organ-shortages/
 Kim, K., & Evans, G. (n.d.). Tissue Engineering: The Future of Stem
Cells. Spareparts/ebooks. Retrieved May 6, 2012,
from http://www.oulu.fi/spareparts/ebook_topics_in_t_e_vol2/abstracts/evans_0102
.pdf
 Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative | Scaffold-Guided. (n.d.).Pittsburgh Tissue
Engineering Initiative | Advancing Regenerative Medicine. Retrieved May 6, 2012,
from http://www.ptei.org/interior.php?pageID=84
 Sefton, P. M. (n.d.). Tissue Engineering. The Institute of Biomaterials and
Biomedical Engineering. Retrieved May 6, 2012, from http://ibbme
.utoronto.ca/faculty/core/sefton/te.htm
 STEM-Works - Biometrics Articles - Tissue Engineering - Building Body Parts .
(n.d.). STEM-Works - Science, Technology, Math & Engineering Resources for
Kids. Retrieved May 6, 2012, from http://www.stem-works.com/subjects/11-
biometrics/cool_jobs/33
 University of Bristol (2006, July 5). Bioengineered Tissue Implants Regenerate
Damaged Knee Cartilage. ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 7, 2012, from
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/07/060705082457.htm