Current Advances in the Development of Decellularized Plant Extracellular Matrix

Abstract

An imbalance exists between the supply of organs for transplantation and the number of patients in the donor transplant waiting lists. Current use of autologous, synthetic, and animal-derived grafts for tissue replacement is limited by the low availability, poor biocompatibility, and high cost. Decellularized plant scaffolds with remarkable physical similarities to human organs have recently emerged and have been found to present favorable characteristics that make them suitable as an alternative biomaterial, such as a superficial surface area, excellent water transport and retention, pre-existing vascular networks, interconnected porosity, and a wide range of mechanical properties. In addition to their unique and superior biocompatibility, plant-derived scaffolds present the advantages of low production cost, no ethical or supply constraints, simple operation and suitability for large-scale production and research. However, there are still some problems and deficiencies in this field, such as immature decellularization standards and methods, insufficient research on the biocompatibility of plant extracellular matrix. At present, research on decellularized plant extracellular matrix is still in its infancy, and its applicability to tissue engineering needs to be further improved. In this review, the current research progress on decellularized plant scaffolds is reviewed, the problems to be solved and future research directions are discussed.

Decellularization for the retention of tissue niches

“…Current research progresses on plant decellularization and their potential applications of plant-derived scaffolding have been introduced and summarized elsewhere. 303 Taken together, we provide a comprehensive and up to date review focusing on a variety of decellularization techniques that have been extensively investigated lately. Further advancements in decellularization strategies would facilitate the clinical applications of the decellularized biomaterials for tissue repair and disease treatment.…”

The Emerging Role of Decellularized Plant-Based Scaffolds as a New Biomaterial

“…Therefore, in recent years, several studies have started to use decellularized vegetal scaffolds to provide structural and biomechanical support for recellularization with mammalian cells, thus paving the way for the use of plant material for generating large (vascularized) tissue grafts [32][33][34][35]. As this unique area has expanded over the past few years [36], the purpose of this review is to discuss recent insights into the field. We first detail and provide perspective on the different approaches used for decellularization and recellularization of plant tissue.…”

Celery‐derived scaffolds with liver lobule‐mimicking structures for tissue engineering transplantation

“…Moreover, the in vivo compatibility of the celery stem‐derived scaffold was also confirmed through specific ectopic transplantation. Thus, this celery‐derived scaffold is very promising, which can be expected to have great prospects in tissue engineering transplantation 30–32 …”