Cellular Regeneration

Introduction to Cellular Regeneration

Regeneration is the regrowth of a damaged or dysfunctional organ part from the remaining tissue. Unfortunately, many human tissues do not regenerate. A goal in regenerative medicine is to find ways to kick-start tissue regeneration in the body, or to engineer replacement tissues.

Animal models using mesenchymal stem cell integration demonstrate tissue regeneration and they are able to stimulate differentiation into various cell types and produce healthy structures (Bruder et al., 1998). As adults, humans can regenerate some organs, such as the liver (Herrera et al., 2010). If part of the liver is lost by disease or injury, the liver grows back to its original size, though not its original shape. Stem cells can treat degenerative tissues through cell expansion and differentiate to regenerate damaged tissue (Dupont et al., 2010).

Studying cellular regeneration is important as it can lead to greater understanding of diseases and conditions, along with potentially providing medicine that can keep us healthy. In the future, it is plausible that the research in cellular regeneration can tackle many of the defects that are a result of aging, especially with the focus on stem cells.