What is Regenerative Medicine?
Regenerative medicine is the specialty that applies principles of engineering and health sciences to make biological substitutes to improve or replace organs or tissues that are so damaged that they can no longer perform their functions.
Artificial skin and cartilage are examples of engineered tissues, although they currently have limited use in human patients.
What diseases does a specialist in regenerative medicine treat?
He treats diseases or trauma that have irreparably damaged tissue. The most frequent diseases are cardiac (coronary disease, arrhythmia, heart failure, etc.), leukemia, degenerative diseases (disc disease, osteoarthritis), lymphomas and monogenic diseases (cystic fibrosis, Huntington’s disease, muscular dystrophy).
Currently, supplementary bladders, small arteries, skin grafts, cartilage and even a complete trachea have been implanted in patients, although these are still experimental and very expensive practices.
Regenerative medicine is a specialty still under experimentation.
What are the subspecialties within regenerative medicine?
Regenerative medicine is characterized by having branches that are part of medicine as well as biology, chemistry and physics:
- Transplantology: it is in charge of transplanting organs to replace the affected organ.
- Clinical research: aims to find solutions to advance regenerative medicine treatments.
- Cell biology: studies the properties, structures and functions of cells.
- Hematology: deals with the diagnosis, treatment and research of blood diseases.
- Immunology: studies the body’s response to microorganisms, toxins or antigens.
- Cellular therapy: it is responsible for introducing new cells, usually stem cells, into the affected tissue. It is often used to treat hereditary diseases.
- Tissue engineering: combines biologically active cells and molecules to improve damaged tissues or entire organs.
- Biomaterials: synthetic or biocompatible materials of organic origin used to replace tissue or organs.
When is it necessary to see a specialist in regenerative medicine?
The patient should visit the specialist in regenerative medicine when he/she has tissues or organs so damaged, either by disease or trauma, that they are no longer repairable with treatments that are not part of regenerative medicine.