Endocrine Abstracts

Tissue engineering is a new discipline that capitalizes on the expertise of cell biologists and material scientists. It attempts to create three-dimensional complexes of cells and scaffolds for the purposes of repair, regeneration or replacement of diseased tissue. The tissues and organs are constructed using appropriate cells, genes or other biological building blocks along with bioengineered materials and technologies There is no clear evidence yet as to the most appropriate cell source for tissue engineering; those being tested include embryonic, bone marrow or cord blood stem cells or those found in specific tissue niches in adults. Cell lineages from the three endodermal layers have been derived from embryonic and bone marrow stem cells. The TERM Centre is focusing on the repair of the musculo-skeletal and cardio-pulmonary systems. Thus, a continuously renewable pool of cells for repair has been established by deriving mature phenotypes, specifically osteoblasts and pneumocytes, from stem cells and these are being grown on a range of natural and artificial scaffolds with the aim of constructing tissues for implantation. In parallel, the mechanisms controlling naturally occurring repair systems are being investigated in order to identify potential means for upregulation.