The idea of tissue engineering, or regenerative therapy, have been a hot topic in past years, particularly in the engineering of organs and blood vessels. In our most recent guest lecture, we learned about the ways that tissue engineering, particularly that of vessels, is making it possible to treat different patients with these engineered organs and vessels rather than requiring the use of a vein, or waiting for a transplant.

The future of cosmetics could very possibly be influenced by this idea of regenerative medicine. Regenerative medicine is a treatment that repairs and produces new tissues and organs using human stem cells. Stem cells, which are multipotent cells, are able to differentiate into different cell types, depending on what type of stem cell they are. For example, mesenchymal stem cells can differentiate into bone, cartilage, fat, skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle, tendons, ligaments, and dermis cells. This makes it possible, given the right conditions for differentiaton to use stem cells to reduce wrinkles, augment a nose or chin, or even reproduce hair, eliminating baldness. By investigating the differentiation process of different cells and learning about what causes the cells to differentiate, we can start to form hypotheses about these processes and outcomes! While the research has not been done yet, we know it is only a matter of time before these sorts of things will become the next generation of cosmetics!

Thus, given what we know, and what we learned about Prof. Niklason and her experience forming a vessel, we know it will take a while to work out the details of treatments such as these, but know that it is possible, especially if someone sticks to it! The future of cosmetics are in our hands now!

Source: https://www.cosmetic-medicine.jp/english/regene/index.html