Abstract
Today, many patients suffer from acute liver failure and hepatoma. This is an area
of high unmet clinical need as these conditions are associated with very high mortality.
There is an urgent need to develop techniques that will enable liver tissue engineering
or generate a bioartificial liver, which will maintain or improve liver function or
offer the possibility of liver replacement. Liver tissue engineering is an innovative
way of constructing an implantable liver and has the potential to alleviate the shortage
of organ donors for orthotopic liver transplantation. In this review we describe,
from an engineering perspective, progress in the field of liver tissue engineering,
including three main aspects involving cell sources, scaffolds and vascularization.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
November 10,
2009
Received:
May 26,
2009
Identification
Copyright
© 2010 International Society for Cellular Therapy. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
