Porcine bioengineered scaffolds as new frontiers in regenerative medicine

Porcine organs are attractive for xenotransplantation, if severe immunologic concerns can be overcome. Recently, reengineered organs, with heterologous cellular materials removed but preserved organ architecture and vasculature have been created using small rodents in an effort to produce customized bioengineered organs. However, few studies have been performed to generate bioengineered organs from porcine sources. The aim of this work was to produce 3-D bioengineered scaffolds from major porcine organs, preserving the native morphology and vascular structures with complete removal of cellular and nuclear materials. We decellularized porcine heart, liver, and kidney using a peristaltic pump system with 1% sodium dodecyl sulfate. The preservation of major architecture and vasculature was confirmed by gross findings, ultrasonography, and angiography. Hematoxylin and eosin staining revealed no evidence of nuclear or cytoplasmic residues. Quantitative DNA analysis demonstrated a substantial reduction (0%-8%) of porcine DNA in the scaffolds. These results suggested that 3-D bioengineered scaffolds of porcine organs may have tremendous potential to produce non-immunogenic transplantable organs as well as beneficial tools for biomedical studies on organ re-engineering and repair.