Affiliations 

  • 1 1Tissue Engineering Centre, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, 12th Floor, Clinical Block, Jalan Yaacob Latif, Bandar Tun Razak, Cheras, 56000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 2 2Urology Unit, Department of Surgery, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, 8th Floor, Clinical Block, Jalan Yaacob Latif, Bandar Tun Razak, Cheras, 56000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 3 3Faculty of Medicine and Health Science, UCSI University, No. 1 Jalan Puncak Menara Gading, Taman Connaught, 56000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 4 4School of Medicine, Taylor's University, No. 1 Jalan Taylor's, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan Malaysia
  • 5 5Minimally Invasive, Upper Gastrointestinal and Bariatric Surgery Unit, Department of Surgery, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, 8th Floor, Clinical Block, Jalan Yaacob Latif, Bandar Tun Razak, Cheras, 56000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 6 6Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Unit, Department of Surgery, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, Clinical Block, Jalan Yaacob Latif, Bandar Tun Razak, Cheras, 56000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tissue Eng Regen Med, 2019 08;16(4):365-384.
PMID: 31413941 DOI: 10.1007/s13770-019-00193-z

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Urinary tract is subjected to a variety of disorders such as urethral stricture, which often develops as a result of scarring process. Urethral stricture can be treated by urethral dilation and urethrotomy; but in cases of long urethral strictures, substitution urethroplasty with genital skin and buccal mucosa grafts is the only option. However a number of complications such as infection as a result of hair growth in neo-urethra, and stone formation restrict the application of those grafts. Therefore, tissue engineering techniques recently emerged as an alternative approach, aiming to overcome those restrictions. The aim of this review is to provide a comprehensive coverage on the strategies employed and the translational status of urethral tissue engineering over the past years and to propose a combinatory strategy for the future of urethral tissue engineering.

METHODs: Data collection was based on the key articles published in English language in years between 2006 and 2018 using the searching terms of urethral stricture and tissue engineering on PubMed database.

RESULTS: Differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells into urothelial and smooth muscle cells to be used for urologic application does not offer any advantage over autologous urothelial and smooth muscle cells. Among studied scaffolds, synthetic scaffolds with proper porosity and mechanical strength is the best option to be used for urethral tissue engineering.

CONCLUSION: Hypoxia-preconditioned mesenchymal stem cells in combination with autologous cells seeded on a pre-vascularized synthetic and biodegradable scaffold can be said to be the best combinatory strategy in engineering of human urethra.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.