28th April 2015
Dr. Elisabeth Engel, Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain.
Invited talk at the Biomaterials Seminar Glasgow: Angiogenesis: The essence of Tissue Engineering
Dr. Elisabeth Engel, Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain.
Invited talk at the Biomaterials Seminar Glasgow: Angiogenesis: The essence of Tissue Engineering
ABSTRACT Engel et al.:
The field of tissue engineering has made steady progress in translating various tissue applications. Although the classical tissue engineering strategy - which involves the use of culture-expanded cells and scaffolds to produce a tissue construct for implantation - has been validated, this approach involves extensive cell expansion steps, requiring a lot of time and laborious effort before implantation. Thus, the lack of angiogenesis in this ex vivo constructs hampers the viability of the formed tissue. To bypass this ex vivo process, a new approach has been introduced: in situ tissue regeneration uses the body’s own regenerating capacity by mobilizing host endogenous stem cells or tissue-specific progenitor cells to the site of the injury. This approach relies on development of a target-specific biomaterial scaffolding system that can effectively control the host microenvironment and mobilize host stem/progenitor cells to target tissues. The design of specific scaffolds that induce endothelial progenitor cells recruitment and promote angiogenesis will create an appropriate microenvironment that will facilitate the regeneration of structural and functional tissues.
More about Prof. Elizabeth Engel: http://www.ibecbarcelona.eu/biomaterials