Review on Brain Decellularization Methods and their Applications for Tissue Engineering

Introduction: Tissue engineering by using decellularized tissues has been attracted attention of researchers in the regenerative medicine. Extra cellular matrix (ECM) is a secretory product of cells inside the tissues with supportive and regulatory function for homing cells. ECM contains glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) and fibrous proteins. Each particular tissue has its unique ECM, especially brain, because of its limited capacity for renovation, which is noticeable during aging and brain injuries. Recent studies reported that decellularized brain could provide necessary ECM for growth and survival of neurons. The main available decellularization techniques are based on physical, chemical and enzymatic approaches. Regarding the fragility of brain tissue, decellularization methods have been optimized to three methods: detergent, detergent enzymatic and physicochemical-enzymatic methods. Focusing on these methods, we performed this review to compare the efficacy and functionality of brain decellularization methods. Conclusion: The decellularized tissue of the brain contains a variety of glycoprotein components that can be used in the preparation of engineered scaffolds for the survival of nerve cells as well as in the preparation of brain organoids. Brain tissue decellularization has been much more successful with the methods that use the chemical solvents Triton X100, trypsin, and DNase in combination with freeze-thaw cycles and low-speed centrifuges.