Advances in regenerative medicine for otolaryngology
Medicine for otolaryngology is focused on the ears, nose, and throat. It is also called otolaryngology-head and neck surgery because specialists are trained in both medicine and surgery. An otolaryngologist is often called an ear, nose and throat doctor, or an ENT for short. Globally, millions of people would benefit immensely if tissues and organs can be replaced on demand. Traditionally, transplantation of intact tissues and organs has been the bedrock to replace damaged and diseased parts of the body. The sole reliance on transplantation has created a waiting list of people requiring donated tissues and organs, and generally, supply cannot meet the demand.
A widely used definition of regenerative medicine is “the process of replacing, engineering or regenerating human cells, tissues or organs to restore or establish normal function. ”For regenerative medicine strategies to be successful, the material used, mostly combinations of scaffolds, growth factors, and stem cells, must be able to replace the damaged tissue and be able to function as the original tissue or be able to stimulate regeneration of the original tissue. Many challenges lie ahead for clinicians and scientists in otolaryngology aiming to translate regenerative medicine therapies into practice. Although these therapies have been researched for decades, very few have been translated to clinical use
Early research in regenerative medicine hoped to engineer tissues and organs outside the body (ex vivo tissue engineering). However, growing mature tissues and organs outside the body has proven challenging and commercialization of these approaches has been limited. Regenerative medicine has expanded its methods to include in vivo regeneration of tissues. These in vivo regenerative approaches range from using the human body as a bioreactor to augmenting the body’s innate ability to regenerate and heal. Regenerative medicine approaches in otolaryngology have varied widely, reflecting the variation in tissue type and function found across these sites.
