Abstract
Treatment of digestive organs with cell sheets is widely performed from basic research to clinical application. The treatment strategy greatly differs between the gastrointestinal tract (e.g. esophagus, stomach, and intestine) or other digestive organs (e.g. liver and pancreas). For the esophagus and small intestine, rapid tissue repair was performed by the cell sheet transplantation to prevent postoperative strictures and perforation. The tissue repair processes were well controlled by cytokine and collagen productions from the cell sheets. Sixty percent of patients who underwent complete circular or semicircular endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) did not cause postoperative strictures due to endoscopic transplantation of autologous oral epithelial cell sheets that had been transported by air. On the other hand, regenerative treatment for the liver and pancreas is underway from an approach based on organ fabrication. In order to carry out safe and rapid liver regenerative treatment, we developed engineered hepatocyte/fibroblast sheets (EHFSs) that were composed of two layers of fibroblasts and hepatocytes. The EHFSs developed into functional vascularized subcutaneous human liver tissues (VSLTs) in the mouse. These regenerative treatments using cell sheets will definitely be one of the treatment options in the future.
