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Bioengineering Human Lung Grafts on Porcine Matrix
Haiyang Zhou1,2,3, Kentaro Kitano1,2, Xi Ren1,2
1Center for Regenerative Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA.
Annals of Surgery
|January 14, 2017
Summary
Researchers bioengineered functional human lung grafts using decellularized porcine scaffolds and human cells. These grafts demonstrated viability, vascularization, and gas exchange capabilities in vivo, paving the way for future transplant applications.
Area of Science:
- Regenerative Medicine
- Bioengineering
- Transplantation Science
Background:
- Implantable bioartificial organs hold promise for revolutionizing transplant surgery.
- Previous successes in bioengineered organs were primarily in rodent models.
- Scaling to human cells and larger graft sizes are critical for clinical relevance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To bioengineer viable, functional, and implantable human lung grafts on a decellularized porcine matrix.
- To assess the feasibility of using human cells in large animal scaffold systems.
- To evaluate the in vitro and in vivo performance of engineered lung grafts.
Main Methods:
- Porcine decellularized lung scaffolds were seeded with human airway epithelial progenitor cells and human umbilical vein endothelial cells.
- Engineered tissue formation was achieved through whole organ culture.
- Grafts were analyzed in vitro and subsequently transplanted into porcine recipients for in vivo evaluation.
Main Results:
- Repopulation with human endothelial cells created a functional pulmonary vasculature with anti-thrombotic properties, enabling blood perfusion.
- Repopulation with human epithelial progenitor cells resulted in a living, gas-exchanging graft.
- Implanted bioengineered lung grafts sustained physiological blood flow and demonstrated gas exchange during a 1-hour observation period.
Conclusions:
- Bioengineering and transplantation of human lung grafts using decellularized porcine scaffolds and human cells is technically feasible.
- The engineered grafts showed initial viability, vascularization, and gas exchange function.
- Further maturation is required to achieve advanced functions like mucociliary clearance and ventilation-perfusion matching for clinical application.
