Looking at bibliographies, it seems like a lot of the research for decellularization was 2011, 2013, and a handful after. So they were still working on getting a clean substrate while working on how to fill it back in.
It’s a big problem, but still seems like they’re swinging for the fences when they could save people in the short term while working on organs.
Interesting! I just remembered that there is another team that's working on plant based scaffolds (cellulose scaffolds from leaves like spinach) [1]. This one is from 2017. So I'm guessing that the interest in the technology hasn't waned yet. I also wonder if any biocompatible scaffolds can be 3D printed, rather than having to decellularize the available ones.
[1] https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/03/spinach-leaf-transfo...