Bioengineering Approaches for Bladder Regeneration

Abstract

Current clinical strategies for bladder reconstruction or substitution are associated to serious problems. Therefore, new alternative approaches are becoming more and more necessary. The purpose of this work is to review the state of the art of the current bioengineering advances and obstacles reported in bladder regeneration. Tissue bladder engineering requires an ideal engineered bladder scaffold composed of a biocompatible material suitable to sustain the mechanical forces necessary for bladder filling and emptying. In addition, an engineered bladder needs to reconstruct a compliant muscular wall and a highly specialized urothelium, well-orchestrated under control of autonomic and sensory innervations. Bioreactors play a very important role allowing cell growth and specialization into a tissue-engineered vascular construct within a physiological environment. Bioprinting technology is rapidly progressing, achieving the generation of custom-made structural supports using an increasing number of different polymers as ink with a high capacity of reproducibility. Although many promising results have been achieved, few of them have been tested with clinical success. This lack of satisfactory applications is a good reason to discourage researchers in this field and explains, somehow, the limited high-impact scientific production in this area during the last decade, emphasizing that still much more progress is required before bioengineered bladders become a commonplace in the clinical setting.

Vascularization and biocompatibility of poly(ε-caprolactone) fiber mats for rotator cuff tear repair

“…In recent decades biodegradable polymers, like PCL, have become increasingly important. PCL has a wide range of application in tissue engineering including vascular grafts [17], bone [18,19], cartilage [20], liver [21], bladder [22], skin [23] and nerve [24]. Implants for rotator cuff tear repair should have a positive impact on tendon healing by supporting cellular infiltration and guiding the regeneration of an organized tendon structure.…”

comparative Study on Surface Geometric Properties of Decellularized and Glutaraldehyde fixed Bovine Pericardium and Possible Effects on Cell Seeding

“…Evolving new scaffolds from biodegradable materials has been considered as the primary aim of the bioengineering field [1,2] . Bovine pericardium (BP) is a collagen-rich biological tissue which is widely used in reconstructive surgeries.…”

Electrospinning: Application and Prospects for Urologic Tissue Engineering

“…An ideal scaffold for urethral tissue engineering should be biocompatible, biodegradable, and own suitable three dimentional microstructure and biomechanical attributes to promote the proliferation of seeded cells and ingrowth of native tissues when was implanted. The scaffold should have enough strength to tolerate the mechanical forces exerted during the surgery and at the same time, should have a matched mechanical compliance to the native urethra to stretch and recoil during penile erection and dilate the lumen during micturition (Selim et al, 2011;de Kemp et al, 2015;Zhang et al, 2015;Simsek et al, 2018b;Rashidbenam et al, 2019). In addition, the scaffold should also act as an impermeable barrier to preserve the underlying tissues from the toxic components of urine (de Kemp et al, 2015).…”

“…Electrospinning, thanks to the numerous influential controllable process parameters, can potentially be an ideal method to make a suitable urethral scaffold with desired permeability, porosity, biocompatibility, topography, and mechanical properties (Xie et al, 2013;Wei et al, 2015;Zhang et al, 2015). Several electrospun scaffolds have been studied so far for urethral tissue engineering applications, all of which resulted in promising outcomes (Fu et al, 2009;Selim et al, 2011;Xie et al, 2013;Wei et al, 2015;Zhang et al, 2015;Lv et al, 2016;Simsek et al, 2018b). However, since there is no standard protocol for urethral graft evaluation, these studies generally lack a comprehensive evaluation.…”

“…However, since there is no standard protocol for urethral graft evaluation, these studies generally lack a comprehensive evaluation. Selim et al evaluated the effect of different sterilization and cell seeding methods on the mechanical properties and contraction of a PLGA electrospun scaffold (Selim et al, 2011). Their study indicated that all three sterilization methods -peracetic acid (PAA), γ-irradiation, and ethanolreduced the strength and elasticity of the scaffolds.…”