Speaker
Description
The true need for transplantable organs has been estimated to be in the order of few millions only in the Western world.
As, worldwide, only 172,397 transplants were performed in 2024, we can infer that the current approach to organ transplantation is inadequate.
The idea of replacing a terminally diseased organs with a new, functional one procured from another individual dates to more than a century ago and should therefore be considered obsolete. Thus, transplantation needs a new paradigm to refer to, and a new strategy to move forward.
Historically, the pillars of organ transplantation have been immunology, organ preservation and prevention and management of the complications induced by chronic antirejection therapy. However, the field known as regenerative medicine has shown potential to meet the most urgent needs of modern transplant medicine, namely the identification of an inexhaustible source of organs, immunosuppression-free transplantation, and organ-on-demand.
As we think that we are now transitioning towards the regenerative medicine phase of the transplant history and that transplantation is the major stakeholder in regenerative medicine, we propose a new paradigm consisting in regenerative transplantation, whereby organ bioengineering, repair and regeneration, in association with cell-tissue-organ cryopreservation and biobanking, become the three major pillars of modern transplantation.
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