ABSTRACT
Regenerative medicine is a rapidly evolving multidisciplinary –eld that aims to replace, repair, or restore normal function to a given organ or tissue by delivering safe, effective, and consistent living cells either alone or in combination with especially designed materials. The –eld is a convergence of apparently separate therapeutic areas including cell therapy, tissue engineering (i.e., creation of in vitro tissues and/or organs for subsequent transplantations as fully functioning organs or as tissue patches), bioengineering, and gene therapy (Guillot et al. 2007). The multiple approaches to regenerative medicine include cell replacement (transplantation ), repair (exogenous cell therapy), and regeneration (mobilization of endogenous pools of stem cells).
