The end of the beginning for tissue engineering

After many years of trying to build engineered tissues on a backbone of synthetic degradable polymers,1 a growing body of evidence suggests that decellularised whole organs and tissues are clinically effective degradable scaffolds.2 Until recently, decellularised tissues were used clinically without the addition of cells, and in many cases--eg, the decellularised porcine small intestine submucosa family of surgical implants--this approach was sufficient to generate a healing response.