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Tissue engineering is a multidisciplinary field which involves the ‘application of the principles and methods of engineering and life sciences towards the fundamental understanding of structure-function relationships in normal and pathological mammalian tissues and the development of biological substitutes that restore, maintain or improves tissue function.’It is viewed as synonymous to ‘‘regenerative dentistry’’ because the goal of tissue engineering is to restore tissue function through the delivery of stem cells, bioactive molecules, or synthetic tissue constructs engineered in the laboratory.Recent advances in mesenchymal stem cell isolation, growth factor biology and biodegradable polymer constructs have set the stage for successful tissue engineering of many tissues, of which the periodontium could be considered a prime candidate for such procedures.
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