Biomatrix scaffolds

A method of producing a biomatrix scaffold from biological tissue, comprising:

• a) perfusing or homogenizing biological tissue with a first basal medium, wherein the tissue is selected from the group consisting of liver, lung, thyroid, skin, pancreas, blood vessels, bladder, kidneys, brain, biliary tree, duodenum, abdominal aorta, iliac vein, heart and intestines, and wherein the osmolality of said first medium is from about 250 mOsm/kg to about 350 mOsm/kg and said first medium is serum free and at neutral pH;
• then
• b) perfusing the biological tissue or extracting the homogenate of step (a) with a delipidating buffer comprising lipases and detergents in said first medium, wherein the detergents do not comprise sodium dodecyl sulfate or Triton X-100;
• then
• c) perfusing the tissue or extracting the homogenate of step (b) with a buffer at a neutral pH and comprising a salt concentration from about 2.0M NaCl to about 5.0M, the concentration chosen to keep insoluble collagens identified in the biological tissue;
• then
• d) perfusing the tissue or extracting the homogenate of step (c) with RNase and DNase in a buffer;
• and then
• e) rinsing the tissue or homogenate of step (d) with a second medium that is at neutral pH, is serum-free and has an osomolality from about 250 mOsm/kg to about 350 mOsm/kg,
• thereby producing an intact or homogenized biomatrix scaffold from the biological tissue, said biomatrix scaffold comprising at least 95% of the collagens and most collagen-associated matrix components and matrix bound growth factors, hormones and cytokines of the biological tissue.