Regenerative medicine deals with the “process of replacing, engineering or regenerating human or animal cells, tissues or organs to restore or establish normal function”. This field holds the promise of engineering damaged tissues and organs by stimulating the body’s own repair mechanisms to functionally heal previously irreparable tissues or organs.
Regenerative medicine is often confused with stem cell therapy and tissue engineering, but the three are distinct fields of study. Stem cells are unspecialized adult cells that can be transformed into specialized cells such as nerve or heart cells. The use of stem cells is controversial because they can cause tumors in some cases and might also cause rejection by the patient’s immune system.
Future medicine will experience a profound change thanks to regenerative medicine. The field of regenerative medicine is still in its infancy and has many challenges ahead, but it holds great promise for improving the quality of life for millions of people around the world.
Aging will be challenged by regenerative medicine. Aging is a disease according to some, that might not be the whole truth, but taken a step further, from a biological standpoint, aging can be thought of as an accumulation of molecular changes that eventually undermine the integrity and resiliency of the body.
Daniel Belsky, an assistant professor at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, views aging from this perspective: “Aging is a cause of disease, not a disease itself,” he says. The future will show, but there are definitiely room for regenerative medicine as a solution to aging.