Frontiers in Biopreservation Technology: Challenges for the Storage of Living Tissues and Engineered Constructs

Modern day medicine has entered the post-genomic era when decoding of the human genome is expected to provide the basis for mapping a route that will define the genetic basis and provide the keys to the eventual cure of human diseases. This new era has also seen the emergence of new disciplines that involve manipulative engineering to provide remedies to a wide variety of conditions ranging from autoimmune diseases such as diabetes to degenerative diseases and even aging. The new discipline of tissue engineering, in its broadest sense, seeks to apply the principles of biology and engineering to produce substitutes for a variety of human tissues and organs in need of repair, restoration or replacement. The medical need for tissue replacement therapy is enormous and growing, in part because of the scarcity of donor tissues and organs, and in part because of the difficulties and complexities of overcoming immune rejection. It is intuitively obvious that these new disciplines of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine will play important roles in the development of anti-aging medicine. Moreover, within these emerging new fields of medicine there is a crucial need for the parallel development of enabling technologies such as biopreservation. It is universally recognized that effective methods of preservation are critically important for ensuring an on-demand supply of the best quality cells, tissues and organs. Biopreservation is also important for the stabilization of natural and engineered tissues to permit transportation and extended shelf life. Tissue engineering is an interdisciplinary field that has largely trivialized the importance of cell and tissue storage. To the best of our knowledge, issues relating to extended product shelf life of most tissue-engineered products, which are at various stages in the commercial pipeline, have still not been adequately addressed. Current practices and challenges for the storage of engineered tissues and allogeneic products will be reviewed. In addition, new technologies in development for cell and tissue storage will be presented with respect to their potential impact on the “shelf-lives” of allogeneic transplants and future tissue engineered medical products (TEMPS).