The kinetics of proteins involved in ion transfer, sequestration and binding in cardiac cells can be modelled to construct a model of the electrical activity of isolated cardiac cells as a system of ordinary differential equations. These cell models may be incorporated into tissue models, which, when combined with histology and anatomy, form virtual tissues. The effects of changes in specific p...

The first 2 reviews in this series have described the defining properties of stem cells, their possible sources, and some initial attempts at their clinical use for tissue regeneration and repair. This third and final article in the series describes bioengineering methods for building physical structures to contain and organize implanted cells. The relevant theory is that appropriate physical s...

The origin of the term tissue engineering is not clear, but a 1985 proposal of Y.C. Fung to the National Science Foundation of the United States for a Center for the Engineering of Living Tissues and 2 conferences organized by the National Science Foundation in 1987 and 1988 are generally accepted as the origin of this lively and rapidly growing research field (The Emergence of Tissue Engineeri...