Immunogenicity of Decellularized Extracellular Matrix Scaffolds: a Bottleneck in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

Overview

Journal Biomater Res

Specialty Biomedical Engineering

Date 2023 Feb 10

PMID 36759929

Authors

Mohammadreza Kasravi

Armin Ahmadi

Amirhesam Babajani

Radman Mazloomnejad

Mohammad Reza Hatamnejad

Siavash Shariatzadeh

Soheyl Bahrami

Hassan Niknejad

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Tissue-engineered decellularized extracellular matrix (ECM) scaffolds hold great potential to address the donor shortage as well as immunologic rejection attributed to cells in conventional tissue/organ transplantation. Decellularization, as the key process in manufacturing ECM scaffolds, removes immunogen cell materials and significantly alleviates the immunogenicity and biocompatibility of derived scaffolds. However, the application of these bioscaffolds still confronts major immunologic challenges. This review discusses the interplay between damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) and antigens as the main inducers of innate and adaptive immunity to aid in manufacturing biocompatible grafts with desirable immunogenicity. It also appraises the impact of various decellularization methodologies (i.e., apoptosis-assisted techniques) on provoking immune responses that participate in rejecting allogenic and xenogeneic decellularized scaffolds. In addition, the key research findings regarding the contribution of ECM alterations, cytotoxicity issues, graft sourcing, and implantation site to the immunogenicity of decellularized tissues/organs are comprehensively considered. Finally, it discusses practical solutions to overcome immunogenicity, including antigen masking by crosslinking, sterilization optimization, and antigen removal techniques such as selective antigen removal and sequential antigen solubilization.

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