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Anthony Salvagno10/29/08 Tissue engineering employs the harmony of biology and mechanicsinto a cohesive structure. Using engineering techniques and biologicalprocesses, one can create many “devices” that serve important functionsespecially those that pertain to the human body. In the most generic terms,tissue engineering is the fabrication of tissue from cells and organicmaterials to improve or replace specific biological function. Tissue can beanything from a portion of specialized cells all the way up to the higher orderorgans which themselves perform a specific task.What was once thought of as fiction is in fact now a cold, hard realitythat has many benefits and from my perspective very little downside.Imagine a woman, trapped in a fire and while she is saved she loses half herface and three-quarters of her body to burn scars. In the past, skin graftswould be used to take healthy skin from an unburned section of her body tocover up the scarred sections. With modern techniques, new skin can begrown from just a couple of cells and be placed on the burned sections togive the appearance that has ever happened before.What about the millions of people in need of organ transplants in someform. There are several major problems with this. In most cases (like hearttransplants) the list of recipients is a lot longer than the list of donors and asof 12:17 pm EST 10/29/08 there are over 100,000 waiting list candidates fororgan donation (www.unos.orgUnited Network for Organ Sharing). Even if 
 
there were an equal number of donors and recipients, the search does notend there. Each organ has to be a match for the recipient based on variousthings including blood type. If the organ doesn’t match the patient, the bodywill reject the transplant and could cause other major complications in theprocedure. Tissue engineering could put an end to all of this and more. There areseveral methods of development that could be used in this process and eachemploys a different cell type (based on donor). Autologous cells areobtained from the same individual they intended to be implanted. Allogeniccells come from an organism of the same species (typical transplants).Xenogenic cells come from a donor from a different species. Syngeniccellsare taken from identical organisms as in the case of twins or clones. Primarycells come from and organism, while secondary cells come from a cell bank(grown in vitro). Stem cells are undifferentiated cells (have no specializedpurpose) usually obtained from embryos (but can be obtained other ways). Iwill discuss more on the first three types, than I will the last few options.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tissue_engineeringWikipedia) There are many ethical debates as to whether stem cells should evenbe used, mostly because of the embryonic usage, but if other means of obtaining stem cells become prevalent, then the method of using stem cellsfor tissue engineering can become extremely useful. Since stem cells areundifferentiated, scientists would be able to control how the cells evolve andcould manufacture anything from essentially nothing. Right now the
 
manufacturing process would use specific cells (for example heart cells tomake a heart) to create the tissue/organ in need, but what if the recipient (Iam assuming they are using autologous cells) has no usable cells (like in thecase of sickle-cell anemia)? A stem cell from the patient can be used tocreate anything of need since it doesn’t have the necessary traits to make itfaulty. The idea of autologous replants has many benefits. Imagine going tothe doctor and discovering that you need a new kidney. The doctor takes asample from your healthy kidney and in time you have a new kidney home-grown and fully functional. The downside is the cost could be very highcompared to other techniques(to be discussed), but this method is arguablythe most ethical and probably the most safe. I also see this methodbecoming useful in the event that other technologies aren’t present or it istoo late for certain actions to be taken.Xenogenic replants consist of a tissue or organ grown from anorganism of another species. Preliminary studies have been performed onrodents and even larger animals (like pigs) to see if these animals couldsupport human cells with success. In this case an organ can be grown on ananimal, not as the animal’s body part, but rather in addition to it. Forexample I have seen images of a human ear grown on the body of a ratprotruding from its back.Major general public fears are certain to arise. For one, there is theman/animal barrier that many feel would be crossed. In the case of an
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