Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine: Achievements, Future, and Sustainability in Asia

Abstract

Exploring innovative solutions to improve the healthcare of the aging and diseased population continues to be a global challenge. Among a number of strategies toward this goal, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM) has gradually evolved into a promising approach to meet future needs of patients. TERM has recently received increasing attention in Asia, as evidenced by the markedly increased number of researchers, publications, clinical trials, and translational products. This review aims to give a brief overview of TERM development in Asia over the last decade by highlighting some of the important advances in this field and featuring major achievements of representative research groups. The development of novel biomaterials and enabling technologies, identification of new cell sources, and applications of TERM in various tissues are briefly introduced. Finally, the achievement of TERM in Asia, including important publications, representative discoveries, clinical trials, and examples of commercial products will be introduced. Discussion on current limitations and future directions in this hot topic will also be provided.

A Bibliometric Analysis of the Global Trend of Using Alginate, Gelatine, and Hydroxyapatite for Bone Tissue Regeneration Applications

“…A consistently increasing trend for publications in tissue engineering research over the past ten years also reflects the expansion of worldwide interest in this issue ( Figure 2 ). Cartilage, bone, skin, tooth, cardiac, and vascularization are the most popular topics discussed regarding tissue regeneration [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. According to the Scopus database, the number of publications that relate to “tissue engineering” and bone increased more than two-fold between 2009 (1352) and 2019 (2868) ( Figure 2 ).…”

Cellulose Composites with Graphene for Tissue Engineering Applications

“…Tissue engineering evolved from the field of biomaterials; its purpose is to combine scaffolds, cells, and biologically active molecules to obtain multifunctional materials that restore, maintain or improve damaged tissues or an entire organ. Some examples of Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved engineered tissues include artificial skin and cartilage, but they have limited use in human medicine due to several yet unknown aspects regarding their long term biocompatibility [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. Bioactive scaffolds, cell therapy, smart drug delivery systems, and wound healing mats are some representative examples of the research topics approached by TE.…”

“…Bioactive scaffolds, cell therapy, smart drug delivery systems, and wound healing mats are some representative examples of the research topics approached by TE. In addition to medical applications, non-therapeutic findings include the use of tissues as biosensors to detect chemical or biological threats or the development of organs-on-a-chip for toxicity screening of experimental medication [ 4 , 8 , 10 ].…”

“…However, their composition is strongly related to their source of origin, therefore they have poor reproducibility. Biomaterials-based scaffolds have the advantage that they can be tailored to meet specific requirements, the result being a controllable environment in which stem cells and growth factors can be incorporated to recreate various tissues [ 4 , 5 , 13 ]. Considering the response of the body’s immune system, it is recommended that scaffolds replicate the native extracellular matrix (ECM) of different tissues, in terms of physical structure, chemical composition and biological functionality [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ].…”

Synergistic Fabrication of Dose–Response Chitosan/Dextran/β-Glycerophosphate Injectable Hydrogel as Cell Delivery Carrier for Cardiac Healing After Acute Myocardial Infarction

“…Lastly, collagen holds the typical nanotopography piece, indifference to the same. [18][19][20] Cells from various sources of human like cardiac stem cells, bone marrow stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells, hemotoprostic stem cells, embryonic stem cells and so on have exploited for the purpose of regenerative myocardium tissues. Even though cell therapies made by different forms of cells have been favorable to improve the function of cardiac, they are not the real accepted occupier of heart tissues.…”