The concept of regenerative medicine can be divided into broad sense and narrow sense.

broadly speaking, regenerative medicine originally refers to the theory, technology and surgical operation of tissue regeneration in vivo. It can also be considered as a subject to study how to promote the physiological repair of trauma and tissue and organ defects, as well as how to regenerate and reconstruct tissues and organs. It can be understood as finding effective biotherapy methods, promoting self-repair and regeneration of the body, or constructing new tissues and organs to maintain, repair and differentiate.

in a narrow sense, it is a new discipline and frontier cross field that applies the principles and methods of life science, material science, clinical medicine, computer science and engineering to research and develop theories and technologies for replacing, repairing, reconstructing or regenerating various tissues and organs of human body.

Regenerative medicine marks that medicine will enter a new era of reconstruction, regeneration, "manufacturing" and replacement of tissues and organs, and it also brings new hope for most medical problems faced by human beings, such as cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, malignant tumors, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, congenital genetic defects and the treatment of various tissues and organs injuries. The connotation of regenerative medicine has been continuously expanded, including tissue engineering, cell and cytokine therapy, gene therapy and microecological therapy. The International Foundation for Regenerative Medicine (IFRM) has clearly defined tissue engineering as a branch of regenerative medicine. With the expansion of the concept of tissue engineering, all kinds of methods and technologies that can guide tissue regeneration are included in the category of tissue engineering, so in general, there is no strict distinction between tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.