Tissue Engineering Challenges

The challenges of engineering tissues will require some innovative and imaginative work. The challenges in tissue engineering include:

1. finding a reliable source of embryonic or progenitor stem cells that is free of other cell types, mutations and diseases,
2. generating "universal donor" cell lines that will not stimulate an immune response,
3. identifying the biochemical signals that control cell differentiation,
4. learning how to regulate cell activity in relationship with other cell types,
5. learning to induce a blood supply along with the tissue so that it can survive,
6. creating new polymers that not only guide tissue/organ growth, but also degrade over time,
7. learning how to protect the new tissue from oxygen free radicals which "poke" holes into the cell membrane,
8. perfecting cryopreservation techniques to store tissues until they are needed, and
9. learning how to work within the federal regulatory system that approves engineered tissues.

This latter challenge may be the one of the greatest challenges of all. Artificial tissues are regulated by various sections of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration because they a) are considered medical devices, and b) they produce substances that are classified as drugs. Currently, there is no clear policies dealing with bioartificial products.