Tissue Engineering: Progress and Challenges

Tissue engineering is the interdisciplinary field of principles of engineering and life sciences. Most of the financial support for this field originates in the private sector, creating a relative economic handicap. Despite initial enthusiasm for the field, limited products for clinical use have been developed. This article evaluates the current progress in the field of tissue engineeering, the current limitations to engineering tissue and organ-specific sites, and the current regulatory questions that need to be defined and answered to permit progress in this field.