Document Detail


Regeneration in medicine: a plastic surgeons "tail" of disease, stem cells, and a possible future.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  19067426     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Regeneration in medicine is a concept that has roots dating back to the earliest known records of medical interventions. Unfortunately, its elusive promise has still yet to become a reality. In the field of plastic surgery, we use the common tools of the surgeon grounded in basic operative principles to achieve the present day equivalent of regenerative medicine. These reconstructive efforts involve a broad range of clinical deformities, both congenital and acquired. Outlined in this review are comments on clinical conditions and the current limitations to reconstruct these clinical entities in the effort to practice regenerative medicine. Cleft lip, microtia, breast reconstruction, and burn reconstruction have been selected as examples to demonstrate the incredible spectrum and diverse challenges that plastic surgeons attempt to reconstruct. However, on a molecular level, these vastly different clinical scenarios can be unified with basic understanding of development, alloplastic integration, wound healing, cell-cell, and cell-matrix interactions. The themes of current and future molecular efforts involve coalescing approaches to recapitulate normal development in clinical scenarios when reconstruction is needed. It will be a better understanding of stem cells, scaffolding, and signaling with extracellular matrix interactions that will make this future possible. Eventually, reconstructive challenge will utilize more than the current instruments of surgical steel but engage complex interventions at the molecular level to sculpt true regeneration. Immense amounts of research are still needed but there is promise in the exploding fields of tissue engineering and stem cell biology that hint at great opportunities to improve the lives of our patients.
Authors:
Edward J Caterson; Stephanie A Caterson
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article; Review    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Birth defects research. Part C, Embryo today : reviews     Volume:  84     ISSN:  1542-9768     ISO Abbreviation:  Birth Defects Res. C Embryo Today     Publication Date:  2008 Dec 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2008-12-18     Completed Date:  2009-01-22     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  101167665     Medline TA:  Birth Defects Res C Embryo Today     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  322-34     Citation Subset:  IM    
Copyright Information:
(c) 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Affiliation:
Division of Plastic Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115, USA. ecaterson@partners.org
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Humans
Reconstructive Surgical Procedures
Regeneration*
Regenerative Medicine*
Stem Cells / cytology*
Surgery, Plastic*
Tissue Engineering*

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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