Regenerative Medicine Current Therapies
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Regenerative medicine employs substances naturally occurring in the body, such as cells, genes, proteins, antibodies, growth factors, hormones, and other biomaterials.While regenerative medicine therapies are being fully developed and refined, clinicians and scientists worldwide continue to address the growing need for tissue substitutes using the current available therapies.
Brighter Future with RM
While current therapies have had a significant impact on medical care, they do not represent the potential of regenerative medicine.
Through regenerative medicine the new or repaired tissue will become fully integrated within the patient, affording a permanent and specific cure for a disease state, rather than the common complications with current therapies:
Surgical autografts are effective but are not an option in cases where no harvest site is available, such as with a serious burn victim.
A xenograft has the potential for tissue rejection and the possible transmission of disease, as well as ethical concerns about the use of animals.
Man-made devices have made great strides but they are composed of materials subject to fatigue, fracture, toxicity, and wear.
Autograft
Autograft is taking a tissue harvested from one location of the patient’s body and transplanted into another part of the same patient. Autologous grafts typically have the best results since rejection is not an issue. However, the technique is not without problems: some patients lack a suitable harvest site; there are additional costs for the harvesting procedure; and the procedure causes the patient additional pain, blood loss (possibly requiring transfusion and its attendant risks), and risk of infection.Allografting
Allografting is tissue or organs harvested from a donor and then transplanted into the patient. Deceased or living donors have donated such organs and tissues as heart, kidneys, lungs, liver, bone marrow, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, eye lens, and blood vessels. Transplantation technology has dramatically improved in recent decades due to better anti-rejection drugs. However, large shortages of donor organs and tissues are a significant problem. In addition, disease transmission is an ongoing problem and life-long anti-rejection medication and threat of potential rejection make this an imperfect solution.Xenograft
Removal of tissue from an animal for transplantation into a human recipient. The potential for tissue rejection and the possible transmission of disease, as well as ethical concerns about the use of animals, make this therapy less-than-desirable. However, a readily available potential supply and the possibility of a standardized product make this option attractive to biomedical researchers who, bolstered by techniques of DNA science and the human genome project continue to investigate the possibility of producing transgenic animals that are recognized as human.Man-made Materials and Devices
Created by engineers and scientists to try to replicate, augment and extend functions performed by biological systems. Examples include artificial hearts, heart valves, prosthetic joints and breast implants.
The materials used, however, are subject to fatigue, fracture, toxicity, and wear. Furthermore, they do not remodel with time. A metal bone implant, for example, cannot grow with the patient and cannot change shape in response to loads placed upon it. And devices such as artificial hearts do not behave like true organs and, therefore, are best suited as temporary therapies until a donor organ becomes available.
Heart valve replacements.