ABSTRACT
Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine are relatively new but rapidly expanding multidisciplinary fields relevant to surgery that have the potential to transform the treatment of a wide range of human diseases. This chapter explores the development of the tissue engineering paradigm and the constituent processes that have been used to enhance tissue healing by considering cells, materials and molecules and the interplay between them, alongside key exemplars. The potential impact of tissue engineering and regenerative therapies is so far-reaching that practising surgeons should be aware of the resulting opportunities to improve patient management. Advances in tissue engineering and more broadly regenerative medicine are underpinned by developments in both the physical and biological sciences, building on the classical tissue engineering paradigm. Stem cells are undifferentiated or non-specialised cells that are able, through cell division, to renew themselves indefinitely.
