In Regenerative Medicine, the goal is to heal tissues and organs in order to restore function lost due to aging, disease, damage or defects. Regenerative therapy can be used for any organ system in the body including nervous tissue (neuroregeneration), skin (dermatology), liver tissue (hepatic regeneration) and muscles. In Regenerative Medicine there are three major categories of treatment: Cell-based treatments that grow new cells for transplant; Tissue engineering where living cells from a patient’s own body or donated are combined with scaffolding materials to form a structure that can replace an injured area; Gene therapies which use genetically modified cells as medical treatments.
What Regenerative Therapy Treatments are Available?
Cell-based treatments that grow new cells for transplant: Autologous stem cell therapy (ASC) uses your own stem cells, which are extracted and cryogenically frozen. These stem cells can be used to treat any organ system in the body including skin (dermatology), liver tissue (hepatic regeneration) or muscles.
Gene therapy: A gene therapy shares many similarities with a traditional drug treatment in that it involves an active agent (a specially engineered virus or DNA) which enters healthy cells to change their function or activity levels. Gene therapies are most commonly used to treat genetic diseases.
Cellular transplants: Regenerative Medicine uses cell-based treatments that grow new cells for transplant. Regenerative Therapy is an interdisciplinary branch of medical care which focuses on promoting restoration of function through injected therapies, cellular based therapies, and tissue engineering methodology techniques.
What are the Benefits?
Regenerative Medicine and Regenerative therapies have many benefits to patients including: cellular transplants (therefore providing tissue/organ/nerve repair), reduction of pain, and increased mobility. Regenerative Therapy is a new field with more advances that will provide people with better lives in the future.
– Regeneration medicine or Regenerative therapy?
Regenerative therapy involves a wide range of interventions that promote restoration of function through injected treatments, cell-based therapies, and tissue engineering. Regenerative Medicine is the broader form with cellular transplants as an example
– Regeneration medicine provides regenerative medical treatment to heal different types of tissues including nerves, skin or muscles
– Regenerative Therapy treats conditions or injuries through injection therapy, cell-based therapies or tissue engineering
What is cell based treatment?
Cell based treatments are used when the patient’s body has difficulty repairing itself naturally. This can happen because there are not enough healthy cells available; or the injury site does not contain enough living cells necessary for healing; or there may be too many injured areas requiring treatment. Regenerative Medicine uses cells from a patient’s own body or donated tissue to help heal these injuries.
Cell based treatments can be broken into three categories:
Transplantation, Regeneration and Proliferation:
Transplantation involves taking healthy stem cells (bone marrow) that have the ability to form new types of blood related cells called hemopoietic cells and transplanting them into a patient. This process takes place after chemotherapy or radiation therapy to reduce the number of healthy cells in order for the transplanted stem cells to be more effective at healing an injury.
Regenerative therapies focus on replacing tissue that is lost due to aging, disease, damage or defects; this type of Regenerative Medicine is needed when the patient’s own body does not have enough living cells available to heal an injury.
Proliferation treatments are those that produce new healthy cells called stem cells in order to replace injured cells and tissue; these types of therapies can be used after a transplant or radiation therapy to reduce side effects (ex: radiation therapy).
What is tissue engineering?
Tissue Engineering uses living cells from the patient’s own body or donated tissue combined with scaffolding materials to form a structure that can replace an injured area. Regenerative Medicine focuses on developing and applying new treatments for injuries using cells that have been genetically modified in order to be more effective such as gene therapies
One technique in tissue engineering is scaffolding which fabricates structures that mimic the natural extracellular matrix (cells are cultured and cultured cells are seeded onto the scaffold). Since cells grow, degrade, and repopulate on these structures they are able to create a new matrix with the same composition as an organ. This method can be used to repair organs that have been damaged by injury, disease or defects.
Regenerative Medicine will continue to offer new and exciting opportunities for new treatments that can be used to heal injuries, replace body parts and organs with new tissue. Regenerative Medicine is a practice in medicine that focuses on developing and applying new treatment for injuries using cells from the patient’s own body or donated tissues combined with scaffolding materials to form a structure that can replace an injured area.
As of June 2017, there are more than 40 FDA approved regenerative therapies for the treatment of five diseases and conditions: heart attack (myocardial infarction), stroke, type I diabetes mellitus, ulcerative colitis and macular degeneration. Regenerative Medicine has the potential to help patients with a variety of injuries and diseases, including:
– Alzheimer’s Disease
– Parkinson’s Disease
– Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
– Brain Injury/Stroke
– Spinal cord injury or damage
The Regenerative Medicine market for these types of injuries is projected to grow by more than $30 billion in the next decade.
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