Decellularized Tissue-Derived Materials for Grafts Development

The extracellular matrix (ECM) is responsible for the structure, biomechanical, and biological properties of tissues and organs. The ECM is a key element in tissue repair and regeneration and there are different tissue engineering (TE) approaches focused on the generation of biomaterials that mimic the ECM properties. One of the most promising alternatives is the decellularization technique which allows to obtain cell-free tissue-specific ECM with reduced immunogenicity. These decellularized ECM (dECM) can be generated by different physical, chemical, biological, or combined techniques and they must be fully characterized ex vivo prior their preclinical evaluation. Moreover, dECM can be functionalized, with cells, or used to generate hydrogels and bioinks for many TE applications. Nowadays, some dECM are being used in clinical practice or under evaluation by different clinical trials. All these key aspects related to the generation, characterization, functionalization, usefulness, and clinical applications are briefly discussed in this chapter.