Tracheal Cartilage Isolation and Decellularization

Tissue decellularization allows isolation of tissue extracellular matrix components, enabling bioengineering of native tissue microenvironments with minimal antigenic components. Here we describe a method to harvest decellularized cartilage tissue from donor trachea using a series of chemical and enzymatic washes and incorporating the extracellular matrix in gelatin methacrylate hydrogels. This decellularized cartilage tissue is easily incorporated into a variety of hydrogels to create a cartilage tissue scaffold.