Regenerative medicine is an interdisciplinary branch of the biomedical sciences that is showing, through the transposition of basic research into the clinic, great potential for therapeutic application, and the field is consequently becoming an important frontman for Translational Medicine. The essence of regenerative medicine consists of the repair or replacement of tissues and organs in which there is structural and functional deficiency. With a view of achieving this objective, several approaches have been proposed, including therapies that include genes, cells, biologic and synthetic scaffolds, which may or may not take part of a tissue engineering strategy. When dealing with synthetic scaffolds, it is possible to manipulate and control structural and mechanical properties, nonetheless, it is not possible to guarantee the same functional capacity as natural tissue. In addition, one of the great challenges is minimizing the risk of immunogenic reactions triggered by the repair scaffold’s composition. Owing to the challenges associated with the reestablishment on a functional and structural level of the cell microenvironment, the interest in scaffolds based on natural extracellular matrix (ECM) has increased considerably.
With a view of obtaining a biomaterial closely approximating tissues or organs having suffered damage, be it structural or functional, yet at the same time presenting safety from an immunological point of view, a new technology for clinical applications of ECM has been proposed – the decellularization of tissues and organs from human or animal donors. This technology makes use of physical, chemical and/or biochemical methods to eliminate cells from the target tissue/organ, be it xenogeneic or allogeneic, whose antigens represent an elevated risk of immunogenic reaction. The process seeks to ensure immunologic safety and the preservation of basic structural and functional components of the ECM, such as proteins, collagen and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). The end product is a three-dimensional ECM scaffold with analogous shape to the original tissue, with preserved ultrastructural architecture and with greater biocompatibility and potential of tissue regeneration when compared to synthetic scaffolds.
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