Liver and kidney are among the most demanded organs for transplantation.
There is currently no tissue engineered liver or kidney that has been used as a clinical
product. One of the main reasons is due to the structural and functional complexity of
these organs. In recent years, several studies have demonstrated significant progress in
development of an engineered 3D tissues and decellularization from the original organ.
3D printing bio-microelectromechanical system (BioMEMS) and organ-on-a-chip
technology can help to provide a biological in vitro model for studying fundamental
organ biology, organ disease, toxicology and drug discovery. Despite promising
approaches have been used by many research groups within last decades, how to
construct a fully functional liver or kidney tissue still reminds a big challenge. In this
chapter we will review the most recent advances in liver and kidney tissue engineering,
respectively.
Keywords: 3D model, BioMEMS, Decellularization, Kidney, Liver,
Microfluidics, Tissue Engineering.
