Tissue engineering and gene therapy in facial plastic surgery

Tissue engineering has provided an attractive alternative to the use of synthetic bioimplants and growth factors, by using cultured cells seeded into biodegradable polymer matrices in order to form implantable tissue constructs. Applications of tissue engineering have included the bioengineering of several tissues, including skin, pancreatic islets, liver, nervous tissue, cartilage, and bone. This review focuses on applications of tissue engineering most relevant to facial plastic surgery, namely bone, cartilage, and skin and wound healing, which are subjects of ongoing research in our laboratory. Our studies of gene-modified tissue engineering, combining principles of tissue engineering and gene therapy, are also introduced.