A hepatic scaffold from decellularized liver tissue: Food for thought

Allogeneic liver transplantation is still deemed the gold standard solution for end-stage organ failure; however, donor organ shortages have led to extended waiting lists for organ transplants. In order to overcome the lack of donors, the development of new therapeutic options is mandatory. In the last several years, organ bioengineering has been extensively explored to provide transplantable tissues or whole organs with the final goal of creating a three-dimensional growth microenvironment mimicking the native structure. It has been frequently reported that an extracellular matrix-based scaffold offers a structural support and important biological molecules that could help cellular proliferation during the recellularization process. The aim of the present review is to underline the recent developments in cell-on-scaffold technology for liver bioengineering, taking into account: (1) biological and synthetic scaffolds; (2) animal and human tissue decellularization; (3) scaffold recellularization; (4) 3D bioprinting; and (5) organoid technology. Future possible clinical applications in regenerative medicine for liver tissue engineering and for drug testing were underlined and dissected

Morphological diversity in oleaginous watermelon (Citrullus mucosospermus) from the Nangui Abrogoua University germplasm collection

A hundred and seventy-one oleaginous watermelon accessions either collected from different countries or obtained from gene banks were evaluated and compared based on 11 quantitative morphological traits. Principal component analysis on 11 traits revealed 81.19% of the total variability and pointed out variations among accessions, mainly on the basis of fruit size and weight. The dendrogram and factorial discriminant analysis clustered the accessions in four groups. The multivariate analysis of variance showed a significant difference between the four groups and accessions of the group 2 had higher agronomic performances. The confusion matrix gave the details about accessions assignment and pointed out that breeders must have recourse to several multivariate analyses to have better agromorphological classification of accessions. The traits related to fruit size and weight were the most accession distinctive. Consequently, fruit morphological traits could be used for accession identification during collecting missions.Key words: Citrullus mucosospermus, morphological characterization, multivariate analysis, oleaginous cucurbit

Mesenchymal Stromal Cell on Liver Decellularised Extracellular Matrix for Tissue Engineering

Background: In end-stage chronic liver disease, transplantation represents the only curative option. However, the shortage of donors results in the death of many patients. To overcome this gap, it is mandatory to develop new therapeutic options. In the present study, we decellularised pig livers and reseeded them with allogeneic porcine mesenchymal stromal cells (pMSCs) to understand whether extracellular matrix (ECM) can influence and/or promote differentiation into hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs). Methods: After decellularisation with SDS, the integrity of ECM-scaffolds was examined by histological staining, immunofluorescence and scanning electron microscope. DNA quantification was used to assess decellularisation. pMSCs were plated on scaffolds by static seeding and maintained in in vitro culture for 21 days. At 3, 7, 14 and 21 days, seeded ECM scaffolds were evaluated for cellular adhesion and growth. Moreover, the expression of specific hepatic genes was performed by RT-PCR. Results: The applied decellularisation/recellularisation protocol was effective. The number of seeded pMSCs increased over the culture time points. Gene expression analysis of seeded pMSCs displayed a weak induction due to ECM towards HLCs. Conclusions: These results suggest that ECM may address pMSCs to differentiate in hepatocyte-like cells. However, only contact with liver-ECM is not enough to induce complete differentiation

Direct regeneration of rattan seedlings from apical meristem and axillary bud explants

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Existing competitive indices in the intercropping system of Manihot esculenta

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