ABSTRACT
Regenerative medicine to facilitate the regeneration and repair of the damaged tissues and organs due to diseases or injuries has evolved over the past few centuries in dierent forms (Mironov et al., 2004). Prostheses made with biocompatible materials, drugs to stimulate regeneration, cells transplanted to lesions, and devices to support or replace the functions of the damaged organs, have been developed (Field et al., 1998; Humes, 2000; Sato et al., 2008). Recent developments to incorporate cutting-edge biomaterials and biotechnologies in developing tissue constructs for improved regenerative performance have increased in sophistication (Uygun et al., 2010). While the traditional approach of implanting materials and devices or transplanting cells in vivo have persisted in healing tissue damages in simpler organs such as skin, cartilage, bone, or muscle (Groeber et al., 2012; Salgado et al., 2004), various in vitro methodologies to build structural and functional mimics of native biological tissues especially for structurally complicated internal organs (e.g., liver, kidney, bladder, lung) have been attempted with increasing degrees of success (Baker, 2011). Cell and tissue-engineered constructs are being developed from these in vitro methodologies to better control the tissue structures and functions prior to implantation into the human body; with the hope that further tissue remodeling will occur in vivo (Kedem et al., 2005). In some cases, this assumption works and in others, it is not true that the in vivo remodeling will correct the design aw of the in vitro engineered tissue constructs.
