Fundamental Technological Developments Required for Increased Availability of Tissue Engineering

Since the initial excitement surrounding successful clinical studies of skin tissue engineering more than 20 years ago (Gallico et al., 1984), steady progress has been made in enhancing the capabilities of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Tissue engineering generally depends upon the use of cultured cells. Since living cells do not fall into any of the existing medical product categories, this has created a great challenge for both regulatory agencies and commercial entities. Although various treatment strategies have been developed, the fundamental technologies and infrastructure to support their widespread adoption are still limited. In this chapter, attention was focused on fundamental technology development. Three major areas, i.e., introduction of serum-free culture media, development of cell storage technologies and methodological development for quality assurance of the products, are discussed with special reference to future development of tissue engineering.