Whole liver engineering: A promising approach to develop functional liver surrogates

Liver Int. 2017 Dec;37(12):1759-1772. doi: 10.1111/liv.13444. Epub 2017 May 14.

Abstract

Liver donor shortage remains the biggest challenge for patients with end-stage liver failures. While bioartificial liver devices have been developed as temporary supports for patients waiting for transplantation, their applications have been limited clinically. Whole liver engineering is a biological scaffold based regenerative medicine approach that holds promise for developing functional liver surrogates. Significant advancements have been made since the first report in 2010. This review focuses on the recent achievements of whole liver engineering studies.

Keywords: decellularization; endothelialization; recellularization; transplantation; whole liver engineering.

Publication types

  • Review
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Blood Coagulation
  • Humans
  • Liver Transplantation
  • Liver*
  • Tissue Engineering*
  • Tissue Scaffolds*