Human-Scale Liver Harvest and Decellularization for Preclinical Research

Decellularized scaffolds are promising for organ regeneration; to facilitate analyses of decellularization and preclinical research, experiments using large animals are indispensable. An efficient protocol using large animals requires the modification of current methods to account for differences in anatomy, size, stiffness, and animal handling. This chapter describes a method for the decellularization of livers from large animals (especially porcine livers), including anesthesia, organ harvest, organ decellularization, and storage, with a summary of potential pitfalls. This methodology can hypothetically be applied to large animals for preclinical studies and subsequent clinical applications.