Autologous extracellular matrix scaffolds for tissue engineering

Development of autologous scaffolds has been highly desired for implantation without eliciting adverse inflammatory and immune responses. However, it has been difficult to obtain autologous scaffolds by tissue decellularization because of the restricted availability of autologous donor tissues from a patient. Here we report a method to prepare autologous extracellular matrix (aECM) scaffolds by combining culture of autologous cells in a three-dimensional template, decellularization, and template removal. The aECM scaffolds showed excellent biocompatibility when implanted. We anticipate that “Full Autologous Tissue Engineering” can be realized to minimize undesirable host tissue responses by culturing the patient’s own cells in an aECM scaffold.