TISSUE ENGINEERING - RECONSTITUTION OF HUMAN HEMATOPOIESIS EX-VIVO

The reconstruction of functioning human tissues ex vivo is becoming an important part of biotechnology. There are compelling scientific, cli nical, and biotechnological reasons for fully or partially reconstitut ing human tissues such as skin, bone marrow, and liver ex vivo. In par ticular, bone marrow is a tissue of much importance, and there are sig nificant societal and health benefits derived from a successfully cons tructed ex vivo hematopoietic system. In this article, we review the c urrent status of this effort. The topics covered include the current u nderstanding of the biology of human hematopoiesis, the motivation for reconstructing it ex vivo, the current state of ex vivo human hematop oietic cultures, the development of important metrics to judge culture performance, and an approach based on in vivo mimetics to accomplish this goal. We discuss some applications of functional ex vivo hematopo ietic cultures and the biological and engineering challenges that face research in this area. (C) 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.