PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Luis Soriano AU - Tehreem Khalid AU - Derek Whelan AU - Niall O'Huallachain AU - Karen C. Redmond AU - Fergal J. O'Brien AU - Cian O'Leary AU - Sally-Ann Cryan TI - Development and clinical translation of tubular constructs for tracheal tissue engineering: a review AID - 10.1183/16000617.0154-2021 DP - 2021 Dec 31 TA - European Respiratory Review PG - 210154 VI - 30 IP - 162 4099 - http://err.ersjournals.com/content/30/162/210154.short 4100 - http://err.ersjournals.com/content/30/162/210154.full SO - EUROPEAN RESPIRATORY REVIEW2021 Dec 31; 30 AB - Effective restoration of extensive tracheal damage arising from cancer, stenosis, infection or congenital abnormalities remains an unmet clinical need in respiratory medicine. The trachea is a 10–11 cm long fibrocartilaginous tube of the lower respiratory tract, with 16–20 tracheal cartilages anterolaterally and a dynamic trachealis muscle posteriorly. Tracheal resection is commonly offered to patients suffering from short-length tracheal defects, but replacement is required when the trauma exceeds 50% of total length of the trachea in adults and 30% in children. Recently, tissue engineering (TE) has shown promise to fabricate biocompatible tissue-engineered tracheal implants for tracheal replacement and regeneration. However, its widespread use is hampered by inadequate re-epithelialisation, poor mechanical properties, insufficient revascularisation and unsatisfactory durability, leading to little success in the clinical use of tissue-engineered tracheal implants to date. Here, we describe in detail the historical attempts and the lessons learned for tracheal TE approaches by contextualising the clinical needs and essential requirements for a functional tracheal graft. TE manufacturing approaches explored to date and the clinical translation of both TE and non-TE strategies for tracheal regeneration are summarised to fully understand the big picture of tracheal TE and its impact on clinical treatment of extensive tracheal defects.A review focusing on the state of the art and clinical translation of tissue engineering and current approaches aimed at developing tubular substitutes for tracheal regeneration and restoration https://bit.ly/37kCB5z