Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine: A translational research for antiaging strategy

Aging is a natural and progressive process which is manifested by structural and functional damage to various body organs. Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine are considered as one of the most advanced modern strategies to understand the complexity of aging and restore the functionalities of organ systems which worsen due to aging. The scope of such an advanced biomedical technology was unearthed several decades ago, and even drastic progress has been achieved in the field of graft development for the skin, bone, cartilage, etc. to regenerate damaged/diseased tissue/organ. Tissue engineering involves fabrication of biomimetic graft which recruits stem cells, allowing them to proliferate or populate the graft to facilitate integration with surrounding tissues and regenerate damaged/diseased tissue. Currently, tissue engineering-based approaches for the treatment of various diseases caused by deterioration of tissues/organ through aging are in either preclinical or initial clinical stages for the development of alternative commercial medical product. This chapter covers various appropriate tissue engineering and regenerative medicinal approaches adopted to develop functional graft and potential stem cell therapy to restore damaged or diseased tissue/organ to address the issues of aging.