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Abstract Tissue engineering has been a topic of extensive research over the last years. The ability of human body to regenerate tissue loss such as bone, cartilage, nerves, skin and muscle is limited leading often to amputations of limbs or functional disability. The isolation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and later the embryonic stem cells in conjunction with the advances made in cellular biology, tissue engineering, genetics and recombinant technology has initiated the development of new techniques and new therapeutic strategies allowing treatment of many pathological conditions providing restoration of tissue continuity and function. Mesenchymal stem cells are present in many human tissues and serve as a readily available source of undifferentiated cells being capable to form specific tissues like bone, cartilage, fat, muscle and tendon. They represent an attractive and promising field in tissue regeneration and engineering for treatment applications in a wide range of trauma and orthopaedic conditions. The bone marrow serves as a reservoir for different classes of stem cells. In addition to haemopoietic stem cells, the bone marrow comprises a population of marrow stromal cells or mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). These cells exhibit multilineage differentiation capacity. The introduction of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into the clinical setting opens new horizons. Autologous or allogenic MSCs can be expanded and may then be loaded into a variety of scaffolds before implantation into a patient. This technique leads to regeneration of bone and cartilage by local induction of osteogenesis and chondrogenesis. Although this area of research holds infinite promise, it is also influenced by scientific, ethical, moral and political controversies. |