Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, 3501 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
Biomech Model Mechanobiol. 2012 Nov;11(8):1109-21. doi: 10.1007/s10237-012-0423-6. Epub 2012 Aug 2.
Sheets of embryonic epithelial cells coordinate their efforts to create diverse tissue structures such as pits, grooves, tubes, and capsules that lead to organ formation. Such cells can use a number of cell behaviors including contractility, proliferation, and directed movement to create these structures. By contrast, tissue engineers and researchers in regenerative medicine seeking to produce organs for repair or replacement therapy can combine cells with synthetic polymeric scaffolds. Tissue engineers try to achieve these goals by shaping scaffold geometry in such a way that cells embedded within these scaffold self-assemble to form a tissue, for instance aligning to synthetic fibers, and assembling native extracellular matrix to form the desired tissue-like structure. Although self-assembly is a dominant process that guides tissue assembly both within the embryo and within artificial tissue constructs, we know little about these critical processes. Here, we compare and contrast strategies of tissue assembly used by embryos to those used by engineers during epithelial morphogenesis and highlight opportunities for future applications of developmental biology in the field of tissue engineering.
胚胎上皮细胞层协调其努力，以创建各种组织结构，如坑、槽、管和囊，从而导致器官形成。这些细胞可以使用多种细胞行为，包括收缩、增殖和定向运动来创建这些结构。相比之下，组织工程学和再生医学领域的研究人员为了修复或替代治疗而寻求产生器官，可以将细胞与合成聚合物支架结合使用。组织工程师试图通过以下方式实现这些目标：以细胞可以嵌入支架内的方式来塑造支架的几何形状，使这些支架自组装形成组织，例如沿着合成纤维对齐，并组装天然细胞外基质以形成所需的组织样结构。尽管自组装是指导胚胎内和人工组织构建内组织组装的主要过程，但我们对这些关键过程知之甚少。在这里，我们比较和对比胚胎用于组织组装的策略与工程师在上皮形态发生过程中使用的策略，并强调发育生物学在组织工程领域未来应用的机会。
