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Updated: Nov 9, 2025
Tissue Engineering of the Intestine in a Murine Model
Published on: December 1, 2012
Bioengineering of the digestive tract: approaching the clinic
Allison L Speer1, Xi Ren2, Eoin P McNeill1
1McGovern Medical School, The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, Texas, USA.
Abstract:
The field of regenerative medicine is developing technologies that, in the near future, will offer alternative approaches to either cure diseases affecting the gastrointestinal tract or slow their progression by leveraging the intrinsic ability of our tissues and organs to repair after damage. This article will succinctly illustrate the three technologies that are closer to clinical translation-namely, human intestinal organoids, sphincter bioengineering and decellularization, whereby the cellular compartment of a given segment of the digestive tract is removed to obtain a scaffold consisting of the extracellular matrix. The latter will be used as a template for the regeneration of a functional organ, whereby the newly generated cellular compartment will be obtained from the patient's own cells. Although clinical application of this technology is approaching, product development challenges are being tackled to warrant safety and efficacy.
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