The application of the principles of life sciences and engineering to develop biological substitutes for the restoration or replacement of tissue or organ function. Tissue engineering combines knowledge from the biological sciences with the materials and engineering sciences to quantify structure-function relationships in normal and pathological tissues, to develop new approaches to repair tissues, and to develop replacements for tissue. See Tissue Art and Culture, Stem Cells.
engineering of biological materials - molecules, cells, tissues, or organs - to repair or replace an organism’s existing biological structures
Relatively new field in which synthetic material and biomolecules are used to design a functional part of an organ
interdisciplinary subject area of biotechnology aimed at solving critical medical problems involving tissue defects and organ failures. The target is to produce complete, living tissue substitute materials in order to heal currently still incurable chronic, degenerative diseases or to prevent acute organ failure
the production of natural or synthetic organs and tissues that can be implanted as fully functional units or may develop to perform necessary functions following implantation
a process involving the controlled ex vivo (outside the body) growth of living tissues and organs on three-dimensional support structures using the principles of cell biology, biochemistry and polymer science.
Tissue engineering is the use of a combination of cells, engineering or tissue-matrix materials, and suitable biochemical factors to improve or replace biological functions. Probably the first definition of tissue engineering was by Langer and Vacanti who stated it to be "an interdisciplinary field that applies the principles of engineering and life sciences toward the development of biological substitutes that restore, maintain, or improve tissue function or a whole organ". MacArthur and Oreffo (as cited in "References") defined tissue engineering as "understanding the principles of tissue growth, and applying this to produce functional replacement tissue for clinical use."