Edited by: Xiaobing Fu
In humans, the biological response and outcome to wounding falls primarily into two categories: tissue regeneration and wound repair. However, for most organs such as skin, heart, lung and kidney cannot fully regenerate, thus resulting in physiological defect and functional impairment. Scar and chronic skin wounds formation are common seen in clinic. For example, the prognosis of extensive and deep burns is not satisfactory because of scar formation and the loss of normal function and skin appendages, which severely affects the quality of life after survival. In diabetic mellitus, diabetic foot is a very complicated outcome and hard to heal.
Fortunately, progress in regenerative medicine brings hope for fully regeneration of organ and tissue after trauma injury. As an emerging interdisciplinary field of research, its clinical application focuses on the repair, replacement and regeneration of cells, tissues, or organs by approaches including cell reprogramming, stem cell transplantation, tissue engineering, activating factors and clone treatment.
This thematic series introduces the recent development of regenerative medicine in basic and clinical research in China and other countries, and some innovative studies in promoting wound healing and tissue regeneration.
This series was published in Burns & Trauma.