Tissue engineering toward organ replacement: a promising approach in airway transplant

Autologous tissue transfer, allografts and prosthetic replacements have so far failed to offer functional solutions for the treatment of long circumferential tracheal defects. Because of the shortcomings related with these strategies, interest has turned increasingly to the field of tissue engineering which applies the principles of engineering and life sciences in an effort to develop in vitro biological substitutes able to restore, maintain, or improve tissue and organ function. The advances in this field during the past decade have thus provided a new attractive approach toward the concept of functional substitutes and may represent an alternative to the shortage of suitable grafts for reconstructive airway surgery. This article gives an overview of the tissue engineering approach and of the encouraging strategies attempted so far in trachea regeneration. (Int J Artif Organs 2009; 32: 763-8)