Decellularisation and Recellularisation of the Liver
A new approach to overcome organ scarcity by in vitro generation of organoids is decellularisation and recellularisation of tissues or whole organs. This concept is based on the idea of composing biologic scaffolds by removing cellular and antigen-presenting components from tissues or organs, obtaining the organs’ extracellular matrix (ECM).
The ECM represents the secreted products of resident cells and preserves the complex architecture and three-dimensional structure of the organ and thus generates a biomatrix ideally suited for reseeding with cells. This implies several advantages compared to other bioengineering concepts:
By preserving the organ’s ultrastructure, including the vascular network, oxygen and nutrient transport to the cells is warranted.
The ECM interacts with the reseeded cells and can act as a proliferation and differentiation inductive template for (autologous) stem cells or progenitor cells.
With this technique, scaffolds from marginal organs e.g. from non-heart beating donors or xenogeneic origin could be used for recellularization with the patient’s own cells. In this manner organ shortage could be overcome and post-transplant lifelong immunosuppressive therapy regimens would be dispensable. Another interesting potential application for these in vitro engineered organoids is their usage in pre-clinical drug discovery or toxicology or as a model for divers liver diseases (i.e. viral infections, hereditary metabolic diseases).
