Tissue Regeneration Based on Drug Delivery Technology

T issue engineering (TE) is one of the biomedical technologies developed to assist the regeneration of body tissues to treat large size defects that are not possible to self-repair. TE may also help to substitute the biological functions of damaged organs by making use of cells. Although there is no doubt that cells are important for this purpose, an artificially created site to induce repair of the defect is a key factor for successful tissue regeneration. This can be achieved only by utilizing an artificial scaffold of 3-dimensional structure for cell proliferation and differentiation as well as growth factors. Growth factors are often required to promote tissue regeneration. They also can induce angiogenesis which is required to supply oxygen and nutrients for the survival of the transplanted cells. However, one cannot always expect the biological effects of growth factors to be fully exerted because of poor in vivo stability, unless growth factor delivery technology is applied. This paper describes recent experimental data on tissue regeneration that emphasize the role of drug delivery technology in tissue engineering, briefly overviewing biodegradable polymers used for this purpose.