Progress and potential for regenerative medicine.
Regenerative medicine focuses on new therapies to replace or restore lost, damaged, or aging cells in the human body to restore function. This goal is being realized by collaborative efforts in nonmammalian and human development, stem cell biology, genetics, materials science, bioengineering, and tissue engineering. At present, understanding existing reparative processes in humans and exploring the latent ability to regenerate tissue remains the focus in this field. This review covers recent work in limb regeneration, fetal wound healing, stem cell biology, somatic nuclear transfer, and tissue engineering as a foundation for developing new clinical therapies to augment and stimulate human regeneration.
Gurtner
Geoffrey C
GC
Children's Surgical Research Program, Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305, USA. ggurtner@stanford.edu
Callaghan
Matthew J
MJ
Longaker
Michael T
MT
D048091:Guided Tissue Regeneration / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D044968:Regenerative Medicine / Q000639:trends*; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000502:physiology; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods