The International Journal of Biochemistry & Cell Biology 56 (2014) 1
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
The International Journal of Biochemistry & Cell Biology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biocel
Editorial
Regenerative medicine: Future impact on clinical therapies and society
Regenerative medicine aims at providing solutions to develop protective, reparative and regenerative strategies for the treatment of various diseases. There is no doubt that stem cells and tissue engineering platforms are promising tools in translational medicine directed at tissue and organ regeneration and repair. Recent research has focused on isolating and characterizing tissuespecific stem cells and cells that are able to differentiate into a variety of different cell lines. The importance of gene replacement therapies combined with pluripotent stem cells that can give rise to the differentiated cells found in tissues cannot be underestimated in the context of providing viable solutions to treat degenerating diseases. In this respect, application of stem cells and smart tissue engineering carry tremendous potential for translation to the clinic and the treatment of maladies, when shortage of organ donors and complications arising after orthotopic transplantation remain a major challenge. It is well established that pathological conditions often initiate endogenous regenerative responses that potentiate regenerative processes from populations of stem cells. One of the main challenges has been to dissect the molecular mechanisms and components that underlie these intrinsic regenerative signaling pathways in order to design effective therapies, e.g. to reduce agerelated loss of muscle mass and function, and treat heart and liver failure via tissue engineering. In this new directed issue, we present a selection of articles on the recent advances in unraveling the cellular and molecular mechanisms that potentiate tissue and organ regeneration following onsets of various maladies varying from stroke, cardiac malfunctions, muscle dystrophy, chronic wound and scar formation, liver diseases, through to eye and lung injury. Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine are usually presented in the context of biomedical research and its translational applications. However, in parallel to the biomedical developments in these fields, there is a
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocel.2014.10.016 1357-2725/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
growing interest in applying tissue engineering and regenerative medicine in the broader societal context such as development of consumer products, art and design. We are particularly grateful to our Guest Editors Prof. Nadia Rosenthal (Monash University, Australia and Imperial College London, UK) and Prof. Miranda Grounds (University of Western Australia), who compiled an excellent collection of reviews and an original research paper on application of regenerative medicine approaches to alleviate various diseases. We believe that this issue will provide a state-of-the-art reference for the most recent advances in revealing the often complex molecular pathways of tissue regeneration, and translating this knowledge into the clinic. Joanna Kargul ∗ University of Warsaw, Centre of New Technologies, Banacha 2C, 02-097 Warsaw, Poland Geoff J. Laurent Centre for Cell Therapy and Regenerative Medicine and Lung Institute of Western Australia, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia Irmgard Irminger-Finger ∗ Laboratory of Molecular Gynecology & Obstetrics, Geneva University Hospitals, 2Ch. Petit Bel-Air 2, CH-1225 Geneva, Switzerland ∗ Corresponding
author.
∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (J. Kargul)
Available online 16 October 2014
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
The International Journal of Biochemistry & Cell Biology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biocel
Editorial
Regenerative medicine: Future impact on clinical therapies and society
Regenerative medicine aims at providing solutions to develop protective, reparative and regenerative strategies for the treatment of various diseases. There is no doubt that stem cells and tissue engineering platforms are promising tools in translational medicine directed at tissue and organ regeneration and repair. Recent research has focused on isolating and characterizing tissuespecific stem cells and cells that are able to differentiate into a variety of different cell lines. The importance of gene replacement therapies combined with pluripotent stem cells that can give rise to the differentiated cells found in tissues cannot be underestimated in the context of providing viable solutions to treat degenerating diseases. In this respect, application of stem cells and smart tissue engineering carry tremendous potential for translation to the clinic and the treatment of maladies, when shortage of organ donors and complications arising after orthotopic transplantation remain a major challenge. It is well established that pathological conditions often initiate endogenous regenerative responses that potentiate regenerative processes from populations of stem cells. One of the main challenges has been to dissect the molecular mechanisms and components that underlie these intrinsic regenerative signaling pathways in order to design effective therapies, e.g. to reduce agerelated loss of muscle mass and function, and treat heart and liver failure via tissue engineering. In this new directed issue, we present a selection of articles on the recent advances in unraveling the cellular and molecular mechanisms that potentiate tissue and organ regeneration following onsets of various maladies varying from stroke, cardiac malfunctions, muscle dystrophy, chronic wound and scar formation, liver diseases, through to eye and lung injury. Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine are usually presented in the context of biomedical research and its translational applications. However, in parallel to the biomedical developments in these fields, there is a
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocel.2014.10.016 1357-2725/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
growing interest in applying tissue engineering and regenerative medicine in the broader societal context such as development of consumer products, art and design. We are particularly grateful to our Guest Editors Prof. Nadia Rosenthal (Monash University, Australia and Imperial College London, UK) and Prof. Miranda Grounds (University of Western Australia), who compiled an excellent collection of reviews and an original research paper on application of regenerative medicine approaches to alleviate various diseases. We believe that this issue will provide a state-of-the-art reference for the most recent advances in revealing the often complex molecular pathways of tissue regeneration, and translating this knowledge into the clinic. Joanna Kargul ∗ University of Warsaw, Centre of New Technologies, Banacha 2C, 02-097 Warsaw, Poland Geoff J. Laurent Centre for Cell Therapy and Regenerative Medicine and Lung Institute of Western Australia, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia Irmgard Irminger-Finger ∗ Laboratory of Molecular Gynecology & Obstetrics, Geneva University Hospitals, 2Ch. Petit Bel-Air 2, CH-1225 Geneva, Switzerland ∗ Corresponding
author.
∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (J. Kargul)
Available online 16 October 2014
