What is regenerative medicine?
Regenerative medicine broadly refers to the repair or
replacement of damaged human tissues and organs. It focuses on
regaining the remarkable regenerative capacity of tissue that all
people have before birth.
This emerging field incorporates the use of
cells, factors, and other biological building blocks, along with
bioengineered materials and technologies.
We are constantly undergoing structural renewal
by replacing molecular components of our tissues, yet the human body
gradually loses effective regenerative capacity as we age.
Essentially, regenerative medicine involves bringing together stem cell
physiology, knowledge of cell growth and death, stimulation of cell
replacement and the factors that regulate these, and knowledge of the
supporting structures between cells.
Click here to watch videos about regenerative medicine.
Regenerative medicine research:
- Investigates ways to help the human body repair, replace, restore and regenerate damaged tissues and organs
- Uses cells, genes or other biological building blocks, along with bioengineered materials and technologies
- Focuses on restoring the remarkable tissue regenerative capacity that all humans have before birth
Regenerative medicine scientists are asking:
- How do some human tissues (our skin, blood cells and lining of the digestive tract) naturally regenerate?
- What determines this ability of cells? What switches it on and off?
- How do newts re-grow their tail or limb, or fish regenerate their fins or heart? What biological and molecular processes make this happen?
- Do the parts of our bodies that do not regenerate (brain, heart) retain a latent ability to regenerate?
Regenerative medicine could:
- Halt, reverse and prevent damage to vital organs such as kidneys, livers and even hearts
- Grow new vital organs for people with organ failure due to disease, injury or genetic conditions
- Treat and cure diabetes through stem cell therapies
- Reverse the effects of neuro-degenerative diseases such as dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease
- Stop the body attacking itself in auto-immune diseases including multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, Crohn’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis
- Treat cancer by building on current stem cell therapies such as bone marrow transplants for leukaemia
- Prevent ageing
Regenerative medicine can involve:
- Regeneration of tissues by injecting or implanting regeneration-competent cells (usually derived from adult or embryonic stem cells)
- Protecting cells and tissue from damage due to disease or injury (eg: by preventing cell death)
- Inducing regeneration in tissue by recruitment of a patient's own cells to the tissue or using proteins or gene delivery to stimulate cell division in the tissue
- Prevention of inflammation and scarring in tissues to better enable the use of these methods