Bioengineering of Liver Tissue

Orthotopic liver transplantation is the only definitive cure for patients with an end-stage liver disease. However, donor organs are limited and many patients die of liver failure before a suitable donor is found. Liver tissue engineering and regenerative medicine are promising technologies that can reduce the burden of liver shortage by increasing the number of organs available for transplantation. These technologies can also help in the development of novel and consistent biologic surrogates for drug discovery, toxicology, and cancer research. In this chapter, we focus attention on various aspects of liver bioengineering. In the first section, we describe the most representative two- and three-dimensional liver models used in liver tissue engineering, including decellularized and recellularized whole-liver scaffolds. In the second part, we highlight the importance of other hepatic three-dimensional culture models (organoids and spheroids) and bioreactor systems in liver disease and transplantation. Finally, we define its increasing use and applications by the pharmaceutical industry and research laboratories in cancer and drug discovery.