Surgical Correction of Genitourinary Disorders Using the Self-Assembly Tissue Engineering

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Author Info

Ève Pellerin Christophe Christophe Emil Grammond Stéphane Chabaud Stéphane Bolduc Weronika Jakubowska

Corresponding Author

Stéphane Bolduc
Centre de recherche en organogénèse expérimentale, LOEX, Regenerative Medicine Division, CHU de Québec Research Center, Quebec, QC, Canada

A B S T R A C T

Urologic and gynaecologic patients often manifest congenital and/or acquired tissue and organ dysfunctions that require surgical reconstruction to recreate the normal genitourinary system functions. Such reconstruction is still a challenge due to the limited availability of suitable tissues, especially for severe urethral and vaginal replacement. Traditional intervention methods have varying degrees of donor site morbidity or inherent side effects. Interestingly, tissue engineering is a growing field that aims to replace or regenerate these dysfunctional tissues and organs with autologous cells, biomaterials, or a combination of both. Experience gained from tissue engineering suggests that the use of acellular matrices alone is not successful in supporting tissue growth over large surfaces. Cellular constituents need to be isolated, cultured and grown in vitro on scaffolds, then transplanted in vivo, in order to achieve successful three-dimensional tissue regeneration. Biomaterials are the backbone for cell-seeded reconstruction of the genitourinary tissues. Several research teams have explored a different cell culture approach based on self-assembly. This innovative technique relies on the capacity of cells cultured in the presence of ascorbate to secrete and deposit their own extracellular matrix forming a tissue-like substance. The mechanical and physical strength properties of these reconstructed tissues are similar to that of natural native tissues in certain models. Tissue engineered substitutes for urethral and vaginal mucosa were produced and subcutaneously grafted with success opening the way to new therapeutic strategies to correct genitourinary defects.

Article Info

Article Type

Review Article

Publication history

Received: Mon 05, Aug 2019
Accepted: Fri 06, Sep 2019
Published: Mon 16, Sep 2019

Copyright

© 2023 Stéphane Bolduc. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.RGM.2019.03.01