title: Perspectives on whole-organ assembly: moving toward transplantation on demand.
abstract: There is an ever-growing demand for transplantable organs to replace acute and chronically damaged tissues. This demand cannot be met by the currently available donor organs. Efforts to provide an alternative source have led to the development of organ engineering, a discipline that combines cell biology, tissue engineering, and cell/organ transplantation. Over the last several years, engineered organs have been implanted into rodent recipients and have shown modest function. In this article, we summarize the most recent advances in this field and provide a perspective on the challenges of translating this promising new technology into a proven regenerative therapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Transplantation Section of Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. sotogutierreza@upmc.edu
authors.forename: Alejandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Soto-Gutierrez
authors.forename: Jason A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Wertheim
authors.forename: Harald C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Ott
authors.forename: Thomas W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Gilbert
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D016377:Organ Transplantation; D051381:Rats; D044968:Regenerative Medicine / Q000379:methods*; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*