title: Endogenous musculoskeletal tissue engineering--a focused perspective.
abstract: Two major difficulties facing widespread clinical implementation of existing Tissue Engineering (TE) strategies for the treatment of musculoskeletal disorders are (1) the cost, space and time required for ex vivo culture of a patient's autologous cells prior to re-implantation as part of a TE construct, and (2) the potential risks and availability constraints associated with transplanting exogenous (foreign) cells. These hurdles have led to recent interest in endogenous TE strategies, in which the regenerative potential of a patient's own cells is harnessed to promote tissue regrowth without ex vivo cell culture. This article provides a focused perspective on key issues in the development of endogenous TE strategies, progress to date, and suggested future research directions toward endogenous repair and regeneration of musculoskeletal tissues and organs.
authors.affiliation: QUT/Mater Hospitals Paediatric Spine Research Group, Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering, Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, c.adam@qut.edu.au
authors.forename: Clayton
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Adam
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D054337:Cell Dedifferentiation; D017690:Cell Transplantation; D006801:Humans; D009142:Musculoskeletal Physiological Phenomena; D012038:Regeneration / Q000502:physiology; D015398:Signal Transduction; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*