Although efforts to generate bioartificial tissues and organs for human therapies go back at least 30 years, such efforts have come closer to clinical success only in the last 10 years, as a result of recent scientific and technical advances. Bioartificial skin for burn care therapy is the first tissue engineering product to be marketed, and is just a glimpse at the immense impact that this field of research will have on the health care industry. Tissue engineered cartilage will be the next tissue to be marketed for patient care, with more complex tissues such as bone, blood vessels, and nerve following in the future. In our laboratory, we are working to generate and repair tissues in the cardiovascular and nervous systems. This research will eventually aid individuals who require coronary artery bypass surgeries and those patients who require nerve reconstruction.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States.
Over 1.4 million surgeries are required annually in an attempt to combat vascular disease. Unfortunately, these numbers do not reflect the large number of individuals who die as a result of donor organ shortage or from inadequate tissue for reconstructive surgery. Approximately 750,000 of all vascular surgeries are coronary artery bypass grafting procedures which serve to bypass occluded coronary arteries and to provide adequate blood flow to the heart. To accomplish this, physicians typically use a blood vessel from elsewhere in the patient, usually from the leg, as a graft to bypass the occluded arteries. However, drawbacks to this approach include the need for multiple surgical procedures, with increased risk and cost to the patient.