Immunosuppressants, which are commonly used for liver transplantation, mainly included calcineurin inhibitors, such as ciclosporin (CsA) and tacrolimus (FK506); glucocorticoid drugs, such as prednisone and prednisolone; cytotoxic drugs, such as azathioprine, mycophenolate mofetil and cyclophosphamide; mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors, such as sirolimus and everolimus; antibody drugs, such as polyclonal or monoclonal antibodies and interleukin (IL)-2 receptor antibodies, etc. Although many categories of immunosuppressants are available, FK506 is the most commonly adopted in liver transplant recipients. However, FK506 can provoke significant adverse effects in the late stage of liver transplantation, especially severe infection and nephrotoxicity. Consequently, it is an urgent task and research hot spot to develop new immunosuppressants with strong immune tolerance and mild adverse effects in clinical practice. In this article, the research progress on immunosuppressants and the research and development status of new immunosuppressants for liver transplantation were reviewed.

End-stage liver disease (ESLD) is a serious threat to human health, and liver transplantation is the only effective treatment. However, most of the patients died in the process of waiting for transplantation due to the shortage of liver source. With the rapid development of biological tissue enginee-ring technology, researchers have established the strategy of 'decellularized and recellularized technology’, which has deve-loped into the first choice for construction of important organs such as the liver and opened up new ideas for the treatment of ESLD. At present, scientists are working on the optimization of this technology, in order to construction a functional 'new liver’ for transplantation. The authors review the feasibility and challenges of the application of this technology and its optimization stra-tegy in the field of regenerative surgery.