Bioengineering of the digestive tract: approaching the clinic

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.

Polydopamine-modified decellularized intestinal scaffolds loaded with adipose-derived stem cells promote intestinal regeneration

“…Decellularized scaffolds have shown promising prospects in the repair of organ defects or replacement of malfunctioning parts of the gastrointestinal tract and have attracted great interest from researchers in the field of gastroenterology. 29,30 In this study, DIS were prepared, and surface modification was carried out by incubation in PDA. Then, ADSC were implanted on PDA-DIS to form composite scaffolds for the repair of intestinal defects in rats.…”

La Investigación, Innovación y Extensión al servicio de la sociedad, en el marco de la Sexta Jornada de Apropiación Social del Conocimiento

“…Experience with decellularization of intestinal tissue has been more limited than that with other organs (O'Neill et al, 2021;Speer et al, 2021). The greatest experience reported has been with rat small intestine, with which efficient protocols have been developed for elimination of cells and conservation of tissue architecture (Maghsoudlou et al, 2013;Totonelli et al, 2012); human small intestine has also been decellularized and has been recellularized with bone marrow-derived stem cells, achieving the appearance of mucinproducing cells, epithelial cells and endothelial cells (Patil et al, 2013).…”

Stem cell niches functionalized strategies for organ regeneration and manufacturing

“…98 Smooth sphincter muscles and progenitor enteric neuronal cell interactions were used to fully bioengineer a gastrointestinal tract that was successfully transplanted into mice and regenerate a functional gastrointestinal tract in vivo. 99 Decellularized gastrointestinal tract acellular ECM scaffolds have been widely applied in gastroenterology. 100,101 Wnt and BMP signaling-based niche remodeling strategies have been widely used for intestinal regeneration.…”