The human body has an amazing ability to heal itself – cut skin heals, bones mend and the liver regenerates. But, when we suffer from medical conditions such as torn rotator cuffs, chronic pain or heart disease, our natural healing processes can be disrupted by the damage caused by these diseases and injuries. This is where regenerative medicine can help.
What diseases can regenerative medicine treat?
Regenerative medicine involves using biologics to replace, repair or enhance tissues and organs in the body to treat or mitigate disease. Unlike traditional medications, biologics are able to stimulate your body’s innate abilities to heal. They also are less likely to have negative side effects than conventional chemical based drugs.
Regeneration medicine encompasses a broad area of research, including cell and tissue engineering, stem cells, gene therapy, molecular biology, bioprosthetic interfaces, and more. The FDA defines regenerative medicine broadly to include any approach that replaces, repairs or enhances tissues and/or organs in the body to treat disease or injury.
Many of the therapies that fall under regenerative medicine have been around for a few decades. For example, Carticel is a therapeutic product that was developed from autologous (patient’s own) chondrocytes to treat focal articular cartilage defects and is available by prescription.
As regenerative medicine progresses, the hope is that we may be able to grow entire tissues and organs in the laboratory and safely implant them when the body cannot heal itself. This could alleviate the need for organ transplantation, which is currently limited by the availability of donor organs.