Page 25 - MemoriaBBN-Eng

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Cell Therapy Group, Instituto de Química Avanzada
Jerónimo Blanco Fernández
de Cataluña del CSIC (TC-CIC)

María Vallet Regí
Research Group in Intelligent Biomaterials,
Universidad Complutense de Madrid (GIBI-UCM)

GIR BIOFORGE, Universidad de Valladolid
Jose C. Rodríguez Cabello
(BIOFORGE-UVA)

Research Group on Microbial Adhesion, Universidad
Ma Luisa González Martín
de Extremadura (AM-UEX)

Regenerative Medicine Center of Barcelona
Juan C. Izpisúa Belmonte
(CMRB)

Strategic a) Regenerative medicine: Tissue engineering and Cell therapy:

lines of Research in regenerative medicine has been identified by CIBER BBN as one of
its strategic lines due to how important it is as a potent therapeutic alternative
research of the
for degenerative diseases caused by specific cell death or malfunction, affecting a
programme
large number of people. Currently there are no effective treatments. These diseases
include very common diseases such as diabetes, Parkinson’s,

Alzheimer’s, leukemia and heart diseases, and as regards trauma the group also

seeks to approach topics such as wound regeneration, ocular regeneration and bone
and cartilage regeneration.

Regenerative medicine could be defined as an up and coming area that seeks to

maintain, improve or restore cell, tissue and body function, by means of applying

methods primarily related to tissue engineering and cell therapy.

This discipline is considered the only area having the capacity to radically change the
way some diseases will be handled in the future. However, this therapeutic modality

is in the very early stages of development, and enormous efforts must be made
to obtain real and consolidated progress. In this sense, tissue engineering is the

most advanced and promising therapeutic option in this area. It has received a very

positive influence from important technological advances such as the development
of new cell culture techniques and the design of resorbable biopolymers.

The purpose of regeneration is based on being able to control and guide cell

response in the desired direction. Accordingly, any strategy chosen for that purpose

through tissue engineering, cell therapy or use of smart biomaterials, will require
not only knowing but also controlling mechanisms of cellular communication with

the environment. Cells read the messages they receive through biophysical and
biochemical signals or stimuli of the environment triggering a series of intracellular
13
signals modifying cell behaviour in response to said signals.
20
T
Now cells will write their own messages in extracellular space either through OR
P
extracellular matrix biosynthesis and/or by remodelling the one already existing. RE
This means a two-way communication of the extracellular matrix and the L
A
microenvironment of the cell. True regeneration engineering would require knowing NU
N
and controlling all this traffic of information, signals and stimuli which is what A
controls cell behaviour.
N /
B
However, if all the elements participating in the regeneration process are analyzed, -B
R
it can be seen that there are a number of such elements and they are all relevant: BE
a) interstitial nutrients, electrolyte and molecules; b) cell transport and cellular CI

mobility; c) the design of the synthetic biomaterial participating in the process
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(degradation, mechanical properties, etc.); d) the metabolic microenvironment; e)