[Tissue engineering: a multidisciplinary approach]

The prostheses have been around for thousands of years. Initially, it was substitute materials to replace members (leg, foot, hand) or for surgery (suture). The materials used have evolved, but they had never been created for medical applications. Recently, other strategies have emerged to construct or repair tissues. They are based on the use of biological components such as proteins or cells and provide a biological dimension to the term "biomaterial" and they often involve engineering. We illustrate the tissue engineering approaches using the examples of muscle and vessel regeneration strategies in the frame of restorative medicine.