Potential of Drug Delivery Technology in Tissue Regeneration Therapy

As the third therapy following reconstructive surgery and organ transplantation, the therapy of regenerative medicine has been currently expected. The objective of regenerative medical therapy is to induce regeneration and repairing of defective and injured tissues based on the natural-healing potential of patients themselves. For successful tissue regeneration, it is undoubtedly indispensable to create a local environment that enables cells to efficiently proliferate and differentiate, resulting in the natural induction of tissue regeneration. Tissue engineering is a biomedical technology or methodology to build up this regeneration environment. For example, the technology of drug delivery system (DDS) enhances the biological functions of growth factors and the related genes for promoted tissue regeneration. This paper overviews the recent status of tissue regeneration based on the technology of growth factor release to emphasize significance of DDS technology in regenerative medical therapy.