Can Whole-heart Tissue Engineering Products by Recellularization from Scaffolds Be Utilized on Humans in the Next Ten Years?

Abstract

Diseases like organ failure lead to irreversible damage to our body, making organ transplantation the only treatment. However, though organ transplantation may be an effective treatment, problems of organ shortage and post-transplantation immune rejection still remain unresolved, making the development of alternative technologies vital. Organ regeneration is, therefore, a promising treatment as it aims to lower the chance of immune responses and may potentially solve the issue of organ shortage. An average procedure of organ regeneration has two steps: decellularization and recellularization. Decellularization techniques include physical, chemical, and enzymatic treatments, and these methods are often combined to maximize cell depletion, turning the organ into an extracellular matrix scaffold and minimizing the chances of immune rejection. Recellularization is the process of repopulating the scaffold with patient-specific cells, and is often completed through using perfusion systems by performing vascular perfusion and intramyocardial injections with the help of a bioreactor. This article explains the concept of whole-heart regeneration and assesses different methods of decellularization and recellularization to find the treatment with the highest efficacy and efficiency, while also conducting a case study on cultured epidermal autografts and primary research, in the form of a questionnaire, to look at the social acceptance of this technology, estimate the progress of whole-heart regeneration, and discuss its limitations.