Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Feb 27, 2023; 15(2): 151-179
Published online Feb 27, 2023. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v15.i2.151
Bioengineering liver tissue by repopulation of decellularised scaffolds
Zeeshan Afzal, Emmanuel Laurent Huguet
Zeeshan Afzal, Emmanuel Laurent Huguet, Department of Surgery, Addenbrookes Hospital, NIHR Comprehensive Biomedical Research and Academic Health Sciences Centre; Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Afzal Z authored text in all sections; Huguet EL designed the overall structure of the manuscript and authored text in all sections; and all authors have read and approved the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Emmanuel Laurent Huguet, BSc, FRCS (Ed), PhD, Researcher, Surgeon, Surgical Oncologist, Department of Surgery, Addenbrookes Hospital, NIHR Comprehensive Biomedical Research and Academic Health Sciences Centre; Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, United Kingdom. eh516@cam.ac.uk
Received: October 26, 2022
Peer-review started: October 27, 2022
First decision: November 16, 2022
Revised: November 22, 2022
Accepted: February 15, 2023
Article in press: February 15, 2023
Published online: February 27, 2023
Core Tip

Core Tip: Given the limited resource of livers for transplantation, repopulation of decellularised scaffolds with recipient cells offers a theoretically attractive organ source without the need for immunosuppression. Bioengineered livers have progressed from small rodent to large animal blood perfusion models. Although some hepatocyte function has been achieved, challenges remain in cholangiocyte repopulation, reconstitution of the vasculature, and other minority cell groups. The cell types used in experimental models to date have yielded advances but may need to be altered if the currently distant prospect of clinical application is to be envisaged.