Special Issue on Women's Health
in Tissue Engineering

With the requirement of “sex as a biological variable” implemented by the National Institutes of Health in 2016 in conjunction with social and political movements toward women’s rights in the past decade, a new resurgence in women’s health research has occurred. A primary focus has been on fertility and reproduction, pregnancy and recovery, and post-menopausal health. Tissue engineered platforms provide the capacity to examine the bidirectional communication between mother and fetus through the placenta, mechanisms underlying diseases such as endometriosis, and the repair and regeneration of reproductive organs after anticancer treatments. These efforts are transforming our understanding of the female body and physiology and providing effective treatments for enhanced quality of life. Increased focus on sex hormones has elucidated the major role these steroids have on tissue homeostasis and repair in nearly all organ systems, not solely reproductive organs. As such, many studies focus on parsing out the cells responsive to sex hormones and the corresponding effect on cell proliferation, differentiation, and new tissue growth.

The focus of this special issue is to highlight the increasing body of work leveraging tissue engineering platforms to examine sex differences and sex hormone-based effects on tissue homeostasis, repair, and regeneration.

The Guest Editors of this special issue will consider articles that provide insight from the breadth of research in tissue engineering focused on women’s health. Original research papers, methods papers, and reviews will be considered. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Strategies for tissue engineering of reproductive organs
• Tissue engineered models of reproductive organs
• Biomaterial scaffolds for regeneration after pregnancy and birth
• Role of sex hormones in tissue regeneration and homeostasis
• Sex differences in tissue development, homeostasis, and repair
• Tissue engineered models to study sex differences
• Animal models to study sex differences
• Models for maternal-fetal interactions
• Artificial ovary and womb
• Reproductive system on a chip

Contributions will receive prompt and thorough peer review and will be published online (epub) ahead of print after acceptance. Please refer to our Instructions for Authors before submitting your manuscript for consideration.

Tissue Engineering is the official journal of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS) and is a leading biomedical journal advancing the field with cutting-edge research and applications on all aspects of tissue growth and regeneration. Multidisciplinary in scope, the journal brings together the principles of engineering and life sciences in tissue development and regenerative medicine.

Advantages of publishing in Tissue Engineering include:

• Rapid, high-quality peer review
• Open Access options available
• Fast and user-friendly electronic submission
• Maximum exposure: accessible in 170 countries worldwide