Tissue Engineering

Citation

van Blitterswijk, C., & De Boer, J. (Eds.). (2022). Tissue Engineering (3rd ed.). Academic Press.

Chapter Summary

The third edition is an edited textbook of twenty-one chapters and about 750 pages, written by more than eighty contributing authors. The publisher says it provides a completely revised release with sections on the fundamentals of tissue engineering and on the tissue engineering of selected organs and tissues, written to be easily understood by undergraduate and graduate students in basic biological sciences, bioengineering and basic medical sciences, with a clear structure aimed at those new to the field. It also lists applied clinical case studies that illustrate basic science applications. The contents move from cells and biological principles, through materials and fabrication technologies, to specific tissues and finally to manufacturing and clinical translation.

Chapter 1: An Introduction to Tissue Engineering; the Topic and the Book

By Jorge Alfredo Uquillas, Lorenzo Moroni and Jan de Boer, about twelve pages. According to the chapter's abstract, it gives an overview of the third edition as an educational tool and of the readers it addresses, discusses the origins, limitations and promises of the field, defines the attitude that tissue engineers in training should have, and ends with a detailed recommendation on how to use each chapter.

Chapters 2–4: Stem Cells; Tissue Formation During Embryogenesis; Cellular Signaling

The biological foundations. Chapter 2, by Mark Pittenger and Candace Kerr, is one of the longer chapters, at about fifty-seven pages. Chapter 3 (Karperien, Roelen, Passier and Gibbs) concerns tissue formation in the embryo, and Chapter 4 (LaPointe and Kilian) deals with signaling between cells.

Chapters 5–9: Extracellular Matrix as a Bioscaffold; Synthetic Biomaterials; Degradation of Biomaterials; Cell–Material Interactions; Biomaterials Discovery

The materials block. It addresses natural scaffolds derived from extracellular matrix (Sicari, Londono, Dziki and Badylak), synthetic biomaterials (Aldana, Bauer and Baker), how biomaterials degrade (Hynes and colleagues, about forty-seven pages), how cells interact with materials (Donnelly and colleagues), and experimental and computational approaches to discovering new biomaterials (Hook and colleagues).

Chapters 10–14: Microfabrication Technology; Scaffold Design and Fabrication; Controlled Release Strategies; Bioreactors; Strategies to Promote Vascularization, Survival, and Functionality of Engineered Tissues

The engineering block. These chapters deal with microfabrication (Nie, Truckenmüller and Takeuchi), scaffold design and fabrication (Hutmacher, Tandon and Dalton), controlled release of signals (Rice, Martino, Bobbala, Scott and Hubbell, about forty-four pages), bioreactors for research and manufacturing (Egger and colleagues), and the problem of keeping engineered tissue alive through vascularization (Filippi and colleagues).

Chapters 15–19: Skin Tissue Engineering and Keratinocyte Stem Cell Therapy; Cartilage and Bone Regeneration; Tissue Engineering of the Nervous System; Principles of Cardiovascular Tissue Engineering; Tissue Engineering of Organ Systems

The application block. The chapters cover skin and keratinocyte stem cell therapy (Hannen and colleagues), cartilage and bone (Lindahl, Brittberg and colleagues, about fifty-one pages, the longest in this block), the nervous system (Dalton, Pêgo and colleagues), cardiovascular tissue engineering (Chen and Cohen), and organ systems (Jorgensen and Atala).

Chapters 20–21: Product and Process Design: Scalable and Sustainable Tissue-Engineered Product Manufacturing; Clinical Translation

The closing chapters follow the path from laboratory to patient: manufacturing design (Claes, Heck, Sonnaert, Schrooten and colleagues) and clinical translation (Joly, Marechal, Van Assche, Moos and Luyten), each about thirty pages.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–4: Cells and Signals

• Stem cells: the cells that supply the building blocks of engineered tissue.
• Tissue formation in the embryo: development as a model for engineering.
• Cellular signaling: the molecular communication that directs cell behavior.

Chapters 5–9: Materials

• Extracellular matrix as a bioscaffold: matrix derived from tissue used as a scaffold.
• Synthetic biomaterials and their degradation: engineered materials and how they break down in the body.
• Cell–material interactions: how materials influence cells.
• Biomaterials discovery: experimental and computational methods for finding new materials.

Chapters 10–14: Engineering Tools

• Microfabrication and scaffold design: shaping materials at small scale.
• Controlled release: delivery of signals over time.
• Bioreactors: systems to grow tissue for research and manufacturing.
• Vascularization: supplying engineered tissue with blood vessels.

Chapters 15–21: Tissues, Manufacture and Clinic

• Tissue-specific engineering: skin, cartilage and bone, nervous system, cardiovascular tissue and organ systems.
• Scalable and sustainable manufacturing: product and process design for engineered tissue.
• Clinical translation: the path from laboratory product to clinical use.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A logical structure for newcomers. The publisher stresses a clear structure for those new to the field, and the contents bear it out: cells, then materials, then fabrication and bioreactors, then tissues, then manufacture and clinical translation.
• Named specialist contributors. Each chapter lists its own authors, including Hubbell on controlled release, Hutmacher and Dalton on scaffolds, Atala on organ systems, and Badylak on extracellular matrix.
• Covers the whole pipeline. Chapters on product and process design and on clinical translation extend the book beyond science to manufacture and the clinic.
• Educational aids. The introductory chapter recommends how to use each chapter, and the publisher lists applied clinical case studies.

Limitations

• Uneven depth and length. With over eighty authors, chapters range from about twelve to fifty-seven pages, and the fundamentals chapters on stem cells and degradation are long, so the level may exceed that of an introductory course.
• Application chapters are selective. Only five chapters deal with specific tissues. The publisher mentions new coverage of skeletal muscle, tendon, ligament, eye and immune systems engineering, but these topics do not appear as separate chapter titles in the contents list, so readers should check where they are covered.
• Prerequisites. The publisher describes the readers as students in basic biological sciences, bioengineering and basic medical sciences. A cell biology background is the sensible minimum, and students from biology backgrounds may need support with the materials and fabrication chapters.
• No independent review found. The assessment rests on the publisher's description, the contents list and the introductory chapter's abstract.

Where It Fits in the Course

Within this course list, van Blitterswijk and De Boer is the multi-author course textbook. Ravi Birla's Introduction to Tissue Engineering is a single-author introduction that presents tissue engineering as an engineering design problem, which makes it a gentler first read. Jonathan Slack's Stem Cells: A Very Short Introduction is a brief account of stem cells and regenerative medicine that can serve as preparation for Chapter 2.

Ioannis Yannas's Tissue and Organ Regeneration in Adults is a focused monograph on wound healing and regenerative materials, suited to graduate students who want depth on why some scaffolds induce regeneration. Lanza and colleagues' Principles of Tissue Engineering is a comprehensive reference covering cell biology, biomaterials, scaffolds and regenerative applications; it is a natural reference to consult after this book, or alongside it for the topics the chapters cover only briefly.

How to Use This Book

The book is for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students in biomedical engineering, bioengineering and the biological sciences, and for researchers entering the field. A cell biology background is the sensible minimum, and some materials science or chemistry helps with Chapters 5–11.

A practical plan:

• Start: Chapter 1, for its guidance on how to use the other chapters.
• Core: Chapters 2, 5, 6, 8, 11 and 14, which cover stem cells, scaffolds from matrix and synthetic materials, cell–material interactions, scaffold fabrication and vascularization.
• By interest: Chapters 3 and 4 for developmental biology and signaling; 7 and 9 for materials degradation and discovery; 10, 12 and 13 for fabrication, release and bioreactors; 15–19 for the tissue you work on.
• For translation: Chapters 20 and 21 for anyone who expects to develop a product.

Read a tissue chapter after the relevant fundamentals chapters, and keep a table that links each tissue's needs (cells, scaffold, signals, vascular supply) back to the earlier chapters. Use a short book such as Slack's or Birla's before starting if the field is new.