title: The complementarity of the technical tools of tissue engineering and the concepts of artificial organs for the design of functional bioartificial tissues.
abstract: Although tissue engineering uses powerful biological tools, it still has a weak conceptual foundation, which is restricted at the cell level. The design criteria at the cell level are not directly related with the tissue functions, and consequently, such functions cannot be implemented in bioartificial tissues with the currently used methods. On the contrary, the field of artificial organs focuses on the function of the artificial organs that are treated in the design as integral entities, instead of the optimization of the artificial organ components. The field of artificial organs has already developed and tested methodologies that are based on system concepts and mathematical-computational methods that connect the component properties with the desired global organ function. Such methodologies are needed in tissue engineering for the design of bioartificial tissues with tissue functions. Under the framework of biomedical engineering, artificial organs and tissue engineering do not present competitive approaches, but are rather complementary and should therefore design a common future for the benefit of patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology IV, Veterinary Faculty, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain. plenas@opt.ucm.es
authors.forename: Petros
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lenas
authors.forename: Angel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moreno
authors.forename: Laertis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ikonomou
authors.forename: Joerg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mayer
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Honda
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Novellino
authors.forename: Camilo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pizarro
authors.forename: Eleni
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nicodemou-Lena
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rodergas
authors.forename: Jesus
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pintor
mesh_terms: D001187:Artificial Organs; D021522:Bioartificial Organs; D001698:Biomedical Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D032701:Biomimetics / Q000379:methods; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*