Main description:

Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine is a new, interdisciplinary branch of science that combines knowledge from numerous scientific fields including biology, biochemistry, physics, chemistry, applied engineering, and medicine. It aims to restore damaged parts of the human body by rebuilding them in vitro using individual building blocks of biological tissues such as cells and the extracellular matrix that surrounds them. The authors hope to spark students' interest in this exciting new field of science as well as give them a basic knowledge of its terminology.

This book is based on a hands-on practical course in tissue engineering conducted by the Fulbright US Scholar recipient, Dr. Narine Sarvazyan (George Washington University, Washington USA). It provides an overview of the core topics of the tissue engineering field, including stem cell differentiation, the role of extracellular matrix and attachment proteins, scaffolds, and culturing of engineered tissues. Each chapter is accompanied by hands-on demonstrations and self-check questions. The text is easily readable for students of all backgrounds and the described protocols can be conducted using common lab equipment. This textbook is also useful for developing undergraduate and graduate courses that teach basic methods and approaches in this promising and rapidly developing field.

Contents:

Course introduction

Chapter 1. Reference search, image and data analysis

Artem Oganesyan & Narine Sarvazyan

Chapter 2. Organs and tissues

Mariam Grigoryan & Narine Sarvazyan

Chapter 3. Cells as tissue building blocks

Anna Simonyan & Narine Sarvazyan

Chapter 4. Cell culture

Astghik Karapetyan & Narine Sarvazyan

Chapter 5. Cell viability assays

Hovhannes Arestakesyan & Narine Sarvazyan

Chapter 6. Extracellular matrix and attachment proteins

Liana Hayrapetyan & Narine Sarvazyan

Chapter 7. Stems cells

Zaruhi Karabekian & Narine Sarvazyan

Chapter 8. Imaging, staining and markers

Vardan Avetisyan & Narine Sarvazyan

Chapter 9. Decellularization

Narine Sarvazyan

Chapter 10. Scaffolds. 3D printing.

Vahan Grigorian & Narine Sarvazyan

Chapter 11. Culturing 3D engineered tissue. Bioreactors

Arman Simonyan & Narine Sarvazyan

Chapter 12. Reporting results