Current Tissue Engineering (Discontinued) - Volume 5, Issue 1, 2016

Background: Bone loss due to congenital or acquired abnormalities of the craniofacial skeleton is of common occurrence. Surgical repair and reconstruction of the critical size bony defects are clinically challenging. Of the several approaches, stem cell-based bone-regeneration is gaining momentum. Stem cells from the orofacial region have been identified as potential source for craniofacial bone reconstruction as they a Read More

Chronic degenerative retinopathies are the leading causes of irreversible vision loss and blindness worldwide. There are limited treatment options for these conditions due to the lack of effective drug delivery system. Currently, to slow disease progression, invasive and repeated drug administrations into the vitreous are clinically performed. Encapsulated cell therapy (ECT) is a promising approach for delivery of therap Read More

Retinal ganglion cell (RGC) degeneration is one of the major causes for blindness, a condition widely attributed to the pathology of RGC axons. How to promote the affected RGC axons to regenerate is currently under intense investigation. Difficulties in adult RGC axons to regenerate are due partially to the attenuated intrinsic re-growth ability, and further complicated by factors located in the unfavorable microenvironments, Read More

Regenerative medicine (RM) possesses the ability to repair injured as well as aging cells, tissues and organs. This review discusses the recent advances, future prospects and challenges in the field of RM mainly the stem cell therapy in degenerative retinal diseases such as age related macular degeneration (AMD), retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and Stargardt disease (STGD). Stem cell lines like retinal progenitor cells, induce Read More

Retinal degeneration due to injury or disease can be a devastating event to the quality of life of an individual. Efforts to develop strategies for retinal repair and regeneration have been challenging due to the complexities in the microenvironment necessary to support and maintain retinal function, as well as the difficulty in guiding the correct integration of regenerating cells to the existing neural networks. Stem cell therapi Read More

Background: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a progressive degenerative disease of the macula and is the leading cause of visual impairment in the elderly population worldwide. The two advanced forms of AMD are geographic atrophy and choroidal neovascularization (CNV) which are the major causes of visual loss in AMD patients. Clinically effective therapy for CNV is now available but is limited by the need f Read More