The Promise of Regenerative Medicine

Is is now going on three decades since the first flush of excitement for regenerative medicine in the form of stem cell therapies. Unfortunately, producing meaningful, reliable regeneration with cell therapies turned out to be a great deal harder then hoped. It is still not a solved problem, outside a few narrow applications. In the intervening time, the field of regenerative medicine has expanded considerably beyond cell therapies, now of many varieties, to encompass approaches such as immune modulation and reprogramming native cell behavior. As today's commentary notes, there is still no magic button to turn on regeneration, but progress continues on what turned out to be a far harder challenge than first thought. Emerging frontiers in regenerative medicine Nearly every human malady, be it injury, infection, chronic disease, or degenerative disease, damages tissues. Moreover, 45% of all deaths can be traced to inflammation- and fibrosis-related regenerative failures. Restoring health after damage requires the answer to a key question: How can human tissues be coaxed to regenerate? Identifying instructive cues that direct refractory tissues down a regenerative path remains a critical yet elusive goal. Nonetheless, approaches to target roadblocks that impede regeneration, including insufficient and/or functionally inadequate progenitor cells, fibrosis, and chronic inflammation, are continuing to progress from bench to bedside. Pivotal advances have been made t...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs