Jasmund Inka, Bader Augustinus
Experimental Radiology, Hepatic Tissue Engineering, Medical School Hannover, Germany.
Adv Biochem Eng Biotechnol. 2002;74:99-109. doi: 10.1007/3-540-45736-4_5.
Tissue engineering is the application of the principles and methods of engineering and the life sciences towards the development of biological substitutes to restore, maintain or improve functions. It is an area which is emerging in importance worldwide. This article is to show the developments in tissue engineering research by the example of the bioartificial liver. As an alternative to liver transplantation, numerous researchers have been working towards the goal of development of a fully functional artificial liver. Liver support systems based on detoxification alone have proven ineffective because they cannot correct biochemical disorders. An effective artificial liver support system should be capable of carrying out the liver's essential processes, such as synthetic and metabolic functions, detoxification, and excretion. It should be capable of sustaining patients with fulminant hepatic failure and preparing patients for liver transplantation when a donor liver is not readily available. Although several hepatocyte-based liver support systems have been proposed, there is no current consensus on its eventual design configuration.
组织工程是将工程学和生命科学的原理与方法应用于开发生物替代品，以恢复、维持或改善功能。它是一个在全球范围内日益重要的领域。本文以生物人工肝为例展示组织工程研究的进展。作为肝移植的替代方法，众多研究人员一直致力于开发全功能人工肝的目标。仅基于解毒的肝支持系统已被证明无效，因为它们无法纠正生化紊乱。有效的人工肝支持系统应能够执行肝脏的基本过程，如合成和代谢功能、解毒和排泄。它应能够维持暴发性肝衰竭患者的生命，并在没有现成供体肝脏时为患者进行肝移植做准备。尽管已经提出了几种基于肝细胞的肝支持系统，但目前对于其最终设计构型尚无共识。
