Engineering three-dimensional tissue structures using stem cells.

The worldwide status of rapidly increasing demand for organ and tissue transplantation has promoted tissue engineering as a promising alternative, in particular the use of stem cells. Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) have the advantage of differentiating to all cell types in the body and high proliferation capabilities. Considering their ability to organize into complex multi-cell-type structures during embryonic-like differentiation, hESCs can potentially provide a source of cells for tissue engineering applications and meet the growing demand for viable human tissue structures in therapeutic clinical application. This chapter describes first steps toward realizing this goal gathered from our experience in growing and differentiating hESCs in three dimensions.