[Present status of regenerative medical therapy and its potential in dentistry]

A new medical therapy that clinically treats disease by making use of the potential of cells for proliferation and differentiation has been tried. To realize this medical therapy of cell-based tissue regeneration, or so-called regenerative medical therapy, it is indispensable to develop a biomedical technology or methodology of tissue engineering that enables cells to enhance their proliferation and differentiation, leading to induction of tissue regeneration. This paper overviews this tissue engineering (TE) and the present status of TE-based regenerative medical therapy. There are four fundamental technologies in TE: 1) the scaffolding for cell proliferation and differentiation, 2) the isolation and culturing of cells, 3) the drug delivery system (DDS) of growth factor, and 4) the maintenance of space to induce tissue regeneration. The TE technologies are briefly explained and concrete examples of in vitro and in vivo tissue regeneration induction are introduced. The collagen sponges of cell scaffold and gelatin hydrogels incorporating various growth factors for controlled release enabled the regeneration induction of various tissues. Tissue engineering of cell scaffolding and DDS technologies that provide cells with a local environment suitable to induce tissue regeneration, is important to realize regenerative medical therapy.