Abstract
A medical treatments for persons who recieved severe damages to an organ and failed to recover its functions has been an application of the artificial organ or the organ transplation. Recently, a new type of artificial organs, called a cell incorporated artificial organ (or a biologically reconstituted organ, or a cultured artificial organ) has been developed to save patients who cannot receive such conventional medical treatments. The new technique of artificial organs features such as (1) applicability for the multifunctional organs like a liver and (2) avoidance of the immunological rejection by using the patient's cells. In this paper the author summarizes the development of cultured artificial skins which have been most investigated among the cultured artificial organs and have been clinically applied. The possibility of a cultured liver is also discussed briefly. Before a settlement of the cultured organn as a clinical technique of the artificial organ, the following methods must be established: (1) rapid proliferation of parenchymal cells of an organ. (2) long-term in vitro maintenance of parenchymal cells. (3) three-dimensional mass cultures of cells.
