Tissue engineering aims to reconstruct tissues and organs by growing new tissue from cells onto a scaffold. It provides an alternative to transplantation by producing tissues customized for patients. Recent advances include improved scaffold materials for bone tissue engineering using osteoinductive and hybrid materials. Scientists have also engineered heart and nerve tissues that closely mimic natural tissues, with the heart tissue even beating when implanted. Tissue engineering holds promise for treating currently untreatable medical conditions but further research is still needed.

1. RECENT ADVANCMENTS IN TISSUE
WHY TISSUE ENGINEERING IS
PREFERRED?
Congenital abnormalities require tissue
reconstruction
Most tissues cannot regenerate following a
disease or injury
Transplantation is limited by the scarcity of
donor tissue
Permanent implants have a lot of success , but lot
of problems
HOW IS IT PERFORMED?
Step 1:
GET TISSUE SAMPLE (CELLS) FROM THE
BODY
Step 2: GROWING CELLS INTO NEW TISSUE
Step 3:IMPLANTING NEW TISSUE
ENGINEERING
Fathima P. E and Lini Cleetus C , MSc.BIOPOLYMER SCIENCE
CENTRE FOR BIOPOLYMER SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY(CBPST), KOCHI TISSUE ENGINEERING
Tissue Engineering is the study of the growth of
new connective tissues, or organs, from cells and a
collagenous scaffold to produce a fully functional
organ for implantation back into the donor host
Figure 2: Your caption to go here
RECENT ADVANCMENTS IN
SCAFFOLD MATERIALS OF
BONE TISSUE ENGINEERING
Bone tissue engineering (BTE) is based on the
understanding of bone structure, bone
mechanics, and tissue formation as it aims to
induce new functional bone tissues
Following are the biomaterials used:
Osteoinductive Materials;
Osteoinductive or “smart” biomaterials have
the ability to induce ectopic bone formation by
instructing its surrounding in vivo environment to
form bone
,It includes hydroxyapatite (HA) and various
calcium phosphate compositions, and their
composites (i.e., HA/ poly(lactic-co-glycolic
acid) (PLGA)
DIFFERENT CELL SOURCES
 Autologous : Donor back to donor , immune
acceptable
Allogeneic : Donor to recepient , same species
Syngeneic : Genetically identical donor
Xenogeneic : Cross-species , such as animal
cells in a human patient
Stem cells : Undifferentiated cells with the
ability to divide in culture
Hybrid Materials;
Co-polymers :- poly(lactide-co-glycolide)
(PLGA),PLGA-PCL
Polymer blends :- PLGA has been blended with
a wide variety of polyphosphazenes
Composite materials:-Composites of HA and
various polymers, including poly(lactic acid)
(PLA) , PLGA , gelatin , chitosan and collagen
BUILDING HEART TISSUE THAT BEATS:
ENGINEERED TISSUE CLOSELY MIMICS
NATURAL HEART MUSCLE
The scientists working on a way to repair the heart have
now engineered tissue that closely mimics natural heart
muscle that beats, not only in a lab dish but also when
implanted into animals
To tackle the challenge of engineering heart muscle, the
scientist have been working with natural proteins that form
gelatin-like materials called hydrogels
The reason we like these materials is because in many ways
they mimic aspects of our own body's matrix
On it, the researchers grow actual heart cells
 To make sure the cells form the right structure,
scientists used 3-D printing and microengineering
techniques to create patterns in the gels
TISSUE ENGINEERING FOR NERVE
REPAIR
A new combination of tissue engineering techniques
could reduce the need for nerve grafts, according to new
research
Pieces of Engineered Neural Tissue are formed by
controlling natural Schwann cell behaviour in a three-dimensional
collagen gel so that the cells elongate and
align, then a stabilisation process removes excess fluid to
leave robust artificial tissues
These living biomaterials contain aligned Schwann cells
in an aligned collagen environment, recreating key
features of normal nerve tissue
CONCLUSION
The promise of tissue engineering has caught people's
imagination in recent years
Inventors, scientists, clinicians, investors and governments
have came together to try to bring the promise of this
technology to those in need of it
 A number of companies have been founded on the hope of
cell therapy and tissue engineering to treat thus far
untreatable or poorly treated medical problems
REFERENCES
Buddy.D.Ratner , Allan.S.Hoffman, Frederick.J.Schoen,
Jack.B.Lemons, 2013, Biomaterials science,Elsevier Inc.
http://allheartcare.tumblr.com
http://www.sciencedaily.com