ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: China is a country with high incidence of liver disease. Liver tissue engineering, which is still in the stage of exploration, has brought a new hope for treatment. OBJECTIVE: To provide advices and references for the development and innovation of liver tissue engineering based on patent analysis. METHODS: The number and development tendency, as well as the technology birthplace, target market, applicants, inventors and technical fields of patents in the field of liver tissue engineering in nearly 20 years were analyzed in this study. The keywords for full-text search included tissue engineering, tissue regenerate/repair, and hepatic/liver. The retrieval deadline was December 28, 2018. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: There is a rapid development in the field of the global liver tissue engineering. The compound growth rate in the past 10 years is 8.64%, of which invention patents account for 84.93%. China is the main technology birthplace; however, the number of tripartite patents of China is far less than that of the United States and Japan. China and the United States are the two most high-profile target markets in the field of liver tissue engineering, but the applicants are mostly from native instead of international. Meanwhile, there are 8 Chinese application institutions and 14 Chinese inventors ranking among the top 20 in the world in this field. In conclusion, liver tissue engineering has developed rapidly in China, but the lack of core technology is still an important issue. Therefore, we must improve our innovation capabilities and explore core technologies continuously to enhance our international competitiveness.
ABSTRACT
The liver is the largest organ in the body; it has a complex architecture, wide range of functions and unique regenerative capacity. The growing incidence of liver diseases worldwide requires increased numbers of liver transplant and leads to an ongoing shortage of donor livers. To meet the huge demand, various alternative approaches are being investigated including, hepatic cell transplantation, artificial devices and bioprinting of the organ itself. Adult hepatocytes are the preferred cell sources, but they have limited availability, are difficult to isolate, propagate poor and undergo rapid functional deterioration in vitro. There have been efforts to overcome these drawbacks; by improving culture condition for hepatocytes, providing adequate extracellular matrix, co-culturing with extra-parenchymal cells and identifying other cell sources. Differentiation of human stem cells to hepatocytes has become a major interest in the field of stem cell research and has progressed greatly. At the same time, use of decellularized organ matrices and 3 D printing are emerging cutting-edge technologies for tissue engineering, opening up new paths for liver regenerative medicine. This review provides a compact summary of the issues, and the locations of liver support systems and tissue engineering, with an emphasis on reproducible and useful sources of hepatocytes including various candidates formed by differentiation from stem cells.
Subject(s)
Adult , Humans , Bioprinting , Extracellular Matrix , Hepatocytes , Incidence , Liver Diseases , Liver Transplantation , Liver , Liver, Artificial , Regenerative Medicine , Stem Cell Research , Stem Cells , Tissue Donors , Tissue EngineeringABSTRACT
@#ObjectiveTo study the possibility of the liver histioid construction through co-culturing hepatocytes and sinusoidal vessel endothelial cells (SVECs) on hyaluronic acid(HA) scaffold.MethodsHepatocytes and SVECs of a mouse were isolated respectively, and then were cultured successively in HA scaffold. The scaffold-cell complexes formed later were implanted onto the surfaces of liver in the mouse. After 2 weeks, the implants were taken out for HE staining and compatibility evaluation.ResultsThe isolated hepatocytes and SVECs were vigorous. The implants inosculated well with liver tissue of the host with visible growth of blood vessels in the implants. The hepatocyte aggregation grown around the vessels, the liver-like tissue, were observed.ConclusionIt is feasible to construct liver histioid through co-culturing hepatocytes and sinusoidal vessel endothelial cells on hyaluronic acid scaffold.