Above is a link to an article on some tissue engineering that has been going on recently. Many engineers have come together to perform some experiments that would contribute to the present and future in many positive ways. This experiment would be, of course, tissue engineering. This would aid patients with sever burn, ulcers, and other serious skin disorders. In the near future scientists want to be to the point where they are able to have lab-grown cartilage and bone. This would benefit people with arthritis. They would also be able to produce cardiac valves, muscle tissue and blood vessels, helping many people with cardiovascular diseases. This would be really helpful to the human population because most list threatening diseases can be cured if they were able to produce a new version of the tissue that is being infected. In order for them to become successful in doing this, they would have to mimic the environment in which cells grow naturally. This sounds like it would be easy, but it is the first step in the process and isn't an easy step to accomplish. They then have to find materials to serve as scaffolding so that the cells can be seeded. Why do they need scaffolds? Scaffolds provide the cells better access to nutrients and waste removal. Scaffolding allows the tissue to be put into any shape or size that it needed, which can become very helpful when doing this. To test this the scientists grew a human ear on a specially bred mouse. They were successful when doing this. Also, the bioreactor was designed which cultivates cartilage, allowing the cells to grow more developed.
How does tissue engineering happen?
