TITLE:
Status of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine in Iran and related advanced tools: Bioreactors and scaffolds
AUTHORS:
Anneh Mohammad Gharravi, Mahmoud Orazizadeh, Mahmoud Hashemitabar, Karim Ansari-Asl, Salem Banoni, Ali Alifard, Sina Izadi
KEYWORDS:
Iran; Tissue Engineering; Cell; Scaffold; Signal; Bioreactor
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Biomedical Science and Engineering,
Vol.5 No.4,
April
19,
2012
ABSTRACT: Because of increased need to tissue and organ transplantation, tissue engineering (TE) researches have significantly increased in recent years in Iran. The present study explored briefly the advances in the TE approaches in Iran. Through comprehensive search, we explored main TE components researches include cell, scaffold, growth factor and bioreactor conducted in Iran. The field of TE and regenerative medicine in Iran dates back to the early part of the 1990 decade and the advent of stem cell researches. During past two decades, Iran was one of leader in stem cell research in Middle East. The next major step in TE was application and fabrication of scaffolds for TE in the early 2000s with focused on engineering bone and nerve tissue. Iranian researchers extensively used natural scaffolds in their studies and hybridized natural polymers and inorganic scaffolds. There are many universities and government research institutes are conducting active research on tissue-engineering technologies. Limitations to TE in Iran include property design and validation of bioreactors. In conclusion, in the last few years, fields of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine such as stem cell technology and scaffolds have progressed in Iran, but one of the biggest challenges for TE is bioreactors researches.