Regenerative chimerism bioengineered through stem cell reprogramming

Abstract

Regenerative medicine aims to restore damaged tissues in order to reverse disease progression and provide a sustainable solution that cures the root cause of the disease process. Although natural mechanisms of repair are ubiquitous, disruption of the homeostatic balance affects the equilibrium between health and disease due to insufficient tissue renewal in chronic degenerative conditions. Augmentation of the diseased tissue repair capacity through chimerism offers a strategy that spans all fields of medicine and surgery from natural chimerism for tissue rejuvenation, to surgical chimerism for organ replacement, to bioengineered chimerism for targeted regeneration. Technological breakthroughs in nuclear reprogramming now provide a platform to advance a broad range of solutions for regenerative medicine built on the foundation of pluripotent autologous stem cells. By optimizing the safety and effectiveness for stem cell production and ensuring tissue- specific differentiation of progenitors, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) offer an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate personalized applications with cell-based products to bioengineer health from disease.