组织工程是应用细胞生物学和工程学的原理研究和开发，以达到修复和重建损伤的组织或器官的外形和功能的生物替代物的一门新学科，是继细胞生物学和分子生物学后，人类生命科学发展史上又一新的里程碑，标志着医学将超越组织和器官移植的旧模式，进人制造组织和器官的新时代，将在21世纪中绽露头角。

文章简略介绍世界组织工程发展历史及各类组织和器官组织工程的研究现状，并介绍我国组织工程科研工作开展的最新情况。目前组织工程已有了迅猛发展，在不少方面已取得重大突破。由于其孕育的巨大科学价值_及广阔的研究和应用前景，因此加快我国组织工程的研究，尽早地投人临床应用，对我国医学科学事业和国民经济的发展具有重大意义。

Tissue engineering, applying the theories of cell biology and engineering, is a new scientific field to study and develop biologic substitutes for repairing tissue defects and restoring organ function. Succeeding cytobiology and molecular biology, it is a new mile stone in life science, marking that in medical science we will step into a new era-fabricating tissues and organs for transplantation .

This paper discusses briefly the historical development of tissue engineering, the status of researches in different kinds of tissue and organ, and present development and acheivements in tissue engineering in China.

Due to its great scientific value and wide applying prospect, tissue engineering is becoming the central point in life science research in the 21 st century. Accordingly, establishing and developing tissue engineering enterprise as soon as possible is of great significance in accelerating medical science and national economy development.