Adipose Tissue: A Valuable Resource of Biomaterials for Soft Tissue Engineering

Abstract

Extracellular matrices (ECMs), isolated through decellularization of mammalian tissues, have been successfullyused in a variety of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications. The composition and spatialstructure of ECMs provide not only specific instructive cues for the growth, migration, and differentiation of variouscells in vitro, but afford ideal substrates for in vivo tissue reconstruction. Adipose tissue, which is the most prevalentand expendable tissue in the body and can be harvested in large quantities with minimal morbidity, has received muchattention as a rich source of ECMs. Recent studies have designed different processes to isolate intact ECMs fromadipose tissue and have fabricated various three-dimensional (3-D) tissue engineering scaffolds such as microparticles,powders, sponges, sheets, and hydrogels for use in regenerative medicine, particularly for patients requiringsoft tissue regeneration. Indeed, because of the abundance of ECM components within adipose tissue, combinedwith the relative ease of large tissue harvesting, adipose tissue is a valuable resource in tissue regeneration therapy,encompassing autotransplantation, allotransplantation, and xenotransplantion. We briefly review extraction anddecellularization techniques of ECMs from adipose tissue, biological characterization and fabrication of ECM-basedtissue engineering scaffolds, and their use in soft tissue engineering.