[Current status of tissue engineering for therapeutic use]

During the past three decades, significant advances have been made in the field of transplantation. However, clinical obstacles such as donor scarcity, cost, infection and life-long immunosuppression(especially within the pediatric age group) have become the major limitations for organ transplantation. This article discusses the recent progresses as well as the remaining challenges in tissue engineering that may enable such technology to replace organ transplantation. Additionally, we describe a practical method for tissue engineering in the field of cardiovascular surgery.