Archive | 2021
Decellularized liver extracellular matrix for iPSC-based liver engineering
Abstract
Abstract Liver diseases cause millions of deaths worldwide annually and the only available treatment is liver transplantation. However, transplantable donor liver scarcity leads to thousands of patients dying waiting for a new liver. An alternative bioengineering approach to understand and treat liver diseases is through the use of native liver extracellular matrix which can be isolated by partial or whole liver decellularization of otherwise discarded donor livers. This technique has been used for development of small-scale in\xa0vitro models to clinically relevant whole organ scale liver scaffolds aimed for repairing or replacing damaged livers. Toward achieving this goal, a common choice of cells has been primary hepatocytes or hepatic cell lines; however, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) provide the unique advantage of constructing patient-specific scaffolds. Currently the bioengineering field is addressing the roadblocks for achieving optimal liver scaffolds with maximum cellular material removal, minimal matrix loss, and the incorporation of different hepatic cell types to one scaffold. Although future improvements are required in ensuring proper vascularization of the large-scale scaffolds as well as advances in induction of iPSC-derived hepatic cells presenting a mature phenotype, the combination of decellularized liver matrices and iPSC-derived hepatic cells holds great promise in engineering transplantable liver tissues and organs.