Tissue therapy
Tissue therapy is a treatment where cells or tissue are used to repair, replace, or rebuild damaged tissue in the body.
Tissue therapy: when tissue repairs the body
Tissue therapy is treatment in which cells or tissue are used to repair, replace, or rebuild damaged tissue in the body.
The body can repair a lot on its own. A wound can close. A broken bone can heal together. But some injuries are too large or too complex for the body to handle alone. This is where tissue therapy can come into play. You could say that tissue therapy is a kind of advanced biological rebuilding. The goal is to help the body form or restore tissue that has been destroyed by disease, injury, or treatment.
Tissue therapy often sits at the intersection of pharmaceuticals, biological tissue, and medical devices.
The key factor is what the cells are meant to do.
If the cells primarily need to affect the body biochemically, this is cell therapy. If they especially need to help rebuild a tissue or get it to function again, this is tissue therapy.
How tissue therapy works
Some treatments begin with taking a small sample of the patient’s own cells or tissue. The cells are grown and tested in the laboratory until they can be used as part of the treatment. They are then returned to the patient there, where the tissue needs to be repaired.
In some treatments, the cells are placed on a biological or artificial support, a so-called matrix or scaffold. The matrix can help the cells grow in the right shape and direction. When a scaffold or a medical device is an integral part of the product, it is referred to as a combined ATMP.
Examples of tissue therapy
Tissue therapy is used to repair or rebuild parts of the body that have been damaged. For example, it can be skin for burn wounds, cartilage for worn knees, or corneas for eye diseases.
New cells from the patient’s own eye can repair the cornea
If the cornea is damaged, in some cases it is possible to grow new cells. The treatment requires that there is still a small intact area left in the eye from which healthy cells can be taken. The cells are then grown in a laboratory and returned to the damaged area of the cornea.
The goal is to restore the surface of the eye and thereby improve vision.One example is Holoclar, which consists of cultured limbal stem cells from the patient’s own eye. The Danish Medicines Agency has recommended Holoclar for a selected patient group.
Source: Limbal stem cells (Holoclar) - Limbal stem cell deficiencyRepair of damaged cartilage in the knee
If the cartilage in a knee is damaged—for example after an injury—one option is to remove healthy cartilage-forming cells, grow them, and then place them back into the damaged area, where they can form new cartilage tissue. One example is Spherox, which is approved by the EMA, but the marketing authorization holder has not applied for launch in Denmark and has therefore not been assessed by the Danish Medicines Council (Medicinrådet).
Explore the other ATMPs
Learn how cell therapy and gene therapy differ from tissue therapy.
What is ATMP?
ATMP stands for Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products and is a new type of advanced medicine that uses the body’s own building blocks—genes, cells, and tissue—to repair or change what isn’t working.
It opens up new possibilities for treating serious diseases—also diseases where, before, there were few or no treatment options. That’s why ATMP is changing the way we treat some diseases.
