"Come out, come out wherever you are": the Food and Drug Administration's proposed rule on establishment registration and listing for manufacturing of human cellular and tissue-based products

Perspectives of Gene Therapy in Stem Cell Tissue Engineering

Tissue engineering is an interdisciplinary field that applies the principles of engineering and life sciences toward the development of biological substitutes that restore, maintain or improve tissue function. It is hoped that forming tissue de novo will overcome many problems in plastic surgery associated with such areas as wound healing and the immunogenicity of transplanted tissue that lead to dysfunctional repair. Gene therapy is the science of the transfer of genetic material into individuals for therapeutic purposes by altering cellular function or structure at the molecular level. Recently, tissue engineering has been used in conjunction with gene therapy as a hybrid approach. This combination of stem-cell-based tissue engineering with gene therapy has the potential to provide regenerative tissue cells within an environment of optimal regulatory protein expression and would have many benefits in various areas such as the transplantation of skin, cartilage or bone. The aim of this review is to outline tissue engineering and possible applications of gene therapy in the field of biomedical engineering as well as basic principles of gene therapy, vectors and gene delivery.

Gene therapy and tissue engineering for sports medicine

Sports injuries usually involve tissues that display a limited capacity for healing. The treatment of sports injuries has improved over the past 10 to 20 years through sophisticated rehabilitation programs, novel operative techniques, and advances in the field of biomechanical research. Despite this considerable progress, no optimal solution has been found for treatment of various sports-related injuries, including muscle injuries, ligament and tendon ruptures, central meniscal tears, cartilage lesions, and delayed bone fracture healing. New biological approaches focus on the treatment of these injuries with growth factors to stimulate and hasten the healing process. Gene therapy using the transfer of defined genes encoding therapeutic proteins represents a promising way to efficiently deliver suitable growth factors into the injured tissue. Tissue engineering, which may eventually be combined with gene therapy, may potentially result in the creation of tissues or scaffolds for regeneration of tissue defects following trauma. In this article we will discuss why gene therapy and tissue engineering are becoming increasingly important in modern orthopaedic sports medicine practice. We then will review recent research achievements in the area of gene therapy and tissue engineering for sports-related injuries, and highlight the potential clinical applications of this technology in the treatment of patients with musculoskeletal problems following sports-related injuries.