Abstract
Although recent progress in the field of regenerative therapy for thin tissue, e.g., dermis or digestive tract mucosa, and tissue with simple construction and function, e.g., bone or cartilage, is advancing, the development of parenchymal organ regeneration is behind. The difficulties of understanding complicated structures and functions of three-dimensional organ are considered reasons for the delay. Especially, there is a strong demand for the investigation of novel therapeutic options for organs failure of such vital organs, e.g,. liver, kidney or pancreas, but it remains only halfway finished. Therefore, new methods to facilitate recovery from such organ failure are highly desirable. Recent progress in the field of tissue engineering has opened attractive approaches for clinical applications of regenerative medicine. Of these, tissue decellularization technology, which retains all the necessary cues for cell maintenance and homeostasis, has recently been applied to whole organs. In this review, we focus on tissue decellularization as a new therapeutic approach.
