We investigate the extension of isotropic interior solutions for static self-gravitating systems to include the effects of anisotropic spherically symmetric gravitational sources by means of the gravitational decoupling realised via the minimal geometric deformation approach. In particular, the matching conditions at the surface of the star with the outer Schwarzschild space-time are studied in great detail, and we describe how to generate, from a single physically acceptable isotropic solution, new families of anisotropic solutions whose physical acceptability is also inherited from their isotropic parent.