DETERGENT-ENZYMATIC METHOD OF RAT LUNG DECELLULARIZATION. MATRIX MORPHOLOGICAL EVALUATION
Tissue engineering is a promising alternative for lung allograft transplantation in patients with end-stage respiratory failure. Development of decellularization methods for animal organs and later for human ones would solve the ethical and immunological problems of transplantation. This study aims to choose the optimal protocol for rat lungs decellularization with almost complete extracellular matrix (ECM) structure preservation, which is confirmed by performing morphological evaluation of the biological scaffold and additionally by quantitative determination of nuclear material before and after lungs treatment with detergent solutions. Route of administration of decellularization solutions influences the speed and efficiency of the process. It was found that the combination of the pulmonary artery perfusion with simultaneous atmospheric air ventilation through the rat trachea promotes complete cells removal while maintaining the three dimensional structure of the biological scaffold (ECM).