Biomimetic ECM Scaffolds Prepared from Cultured Cells - Biomimetics: Advancing Nanobiomaterials and Tissue Engineering - page 239

10
Biomimetic ECM Scaffolds Prepared
from Cultured Cells
Guoping Chen*, Hongxu Lu and Naoki Kawazoe
Tissue Regeneration Materials Unit, International Center for Materials
Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, Ibaraki, Japan
Abstract
Porous scaffolds have been widely used for tissue engineering and regenerative
medicine. Biomimetic scaffolds that mimic the extracellular matrix (ECM) micro-
environment surrounding cells in vivo are desirable to provide appropriate biolog-
ical cues to control cell functions and guide functional tissue regeneration. ECM
scaffolds can be prepared from isolated ECM proteins and decellularized tissues
and organs. Recently, cultured cells have been used to create ECM scaffolds. Cells
are cultured in vitro at controlled conditions to deposit ECM. Cultured cell-derived
ECM scaffolds can be obtained after decellularization of the cells/ECM complex.
Different cell types can be used for preparation of their respective ECM scaffolds.
Cultured cell-derived ECM scaffolds show promotive effects on tissue regenera-
tion. This chapter summarizes the latest achievements of biomimetic ECM scaf-
folds prepared from cultured cells.
Keywords: ECM, scaffold, porous scaffold, biomimetic scaffold, autologous scaf-
fold, cultured cells, decellularization, template, tissue engineering
10.1 Introduction
Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine has been used to regener-
ate new tissues and organs to restore or replace lost or malfunctioning
tissues and organs [1-3]. Cells isolated from a patient are cultured in bio-
degradable scaffolds supplemented with growth factors to regenerate
functional tissues and organs for transplantation [4-5]. Scaffolds serve
as a temporary support for cell adhesion and distribution and provide
biological cues to control cell proliferation and differentiation. Scaffolds