Application of tissue engineering in stem cell therapy

Abstract

Tissue engineering based on stem cells has gained interest recently as attempts are made to engineer scaffold environments mimicking the stem cell niche, which contains a reservoir of multipotent stem cells that can maintain normal tissue or restore unhealthy cell populations in response to mechanisms of quiescence, self-renewal, and differentiation of the stem cells. These cell behaviors are governed by soluble signals that are systemic or presented by local niche cells. In this review, current and emergent approaches based on stem cells in the field of tissue engineering are presented for specific applications of human tissues and organs. The combination of stem cells and tissue engineering opens new perspectives in tissue regeneration for stem cell therapy because of the potential to control stem cell behavior with the physical and chemical characteristics of the engineered scaffold environment.