Processing and design criteria for engineering artificial tissues

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Organ failure as a result of injury or disease is a widespread and increasing medical problem with immense personal and economic implications. Engineering artificial tissues is an important emerging strategy for treating patients who have suffered impaired tissue function. To be an effective treatment option, a substitute tissue must provide adequate function, comparable to the native tissue it is replacing. Native tissues are comprised of many individual cells arranged in precisely defined patterns necessary to ensure correct function. Currently, engineered tissues only partially resemble native tissues in structure and do not function adequately to treat patients. Native tissues are assembled in the developing embryo. Various signalling molecules and interactions between the component cells define tissue organization. Artificially recapitulating the signalling and cell-cell interactions that organize tissues in an embryo offers a novel strategy for engineers to organize artificial tissues with appropriate structure and function.