How do you define regenerative medicine?

22 Jan 2015

Written by Alexandra Thompson

What is ‘regenerative medicine’? The definition of this term varies — what is your take?

If someone asked me off the top of my head what regenerative medicine is, I would say it is the application of strategies to repair, replace or regenerate human cells, tissues or organs. I would argue that although the primary focus is stem cell therapy, this also includes application of growth factors or small molecules, tissue engineering, biomaterial scaffolds, organ development, gene therapy, and so on. But, I am a community manager, not an expert in the field.

In a 2008 Regenerative Medicine article Profs Chris Mason and Peter Dunnill stated “regenerative medicine replaces or regenerates human cells, tissues or organs, to restore or establish normal function” [1]. This beautifully clear and concise definition is widely used in the field, but some seven years later it is not used by all, and nor is any other description consistently used. Some other descriptions are as follows:

“Medical treatments that restore complete function to tissues and organs that are damaged by age, injury or disease. These treatments range from drugs that stimulate tissue regeneration to methods of cell and tissue replacement” [2],
“Methods to replace or regenerate human cells, tissues or organs in order to restore or establish normal function. This includes cell therapies, tissue engineering, gene therapy and biomedical engineering techniques, as well as more traditional treatments involving pharmaceuticals, biologics and devices” (utilising the Mason and Dunnill definition) [3],
‘Rejuvenation’ included as well as ‘regeneration’ and ‘replacement’ [4],
“The creation of tissues that provide, repair, replace or restore structures and functions absent or lost due to congenital defects, ageing, disease, or damage” [5],
“Regenerative medicine is the process of creating living, functional tissues to repair or replace tissue or organ function lost due to age, disease, damage, or congenital defects” [6].

Clearly there is very significant overlap, but there is still a little inconsistency. Why is there variation in the inclusion of terms such as rejuvenation and repair?