MECHANICALLY GUIDED UROLOGICAL TISSUE REGENERATION IN VITRO

Clemson University, Clemson SC

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Abstract

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Recent clinical success in bladder tissue engineering by Atala el al (1) demonstrated the feasibility of this technology to combine synthetic polymer scaffolds with host cells for bladder reconstruction. Yet, there remain several unresolved issues. For example, in-vitro culturing of bladder smooth muscle cells for a prolonged time period results in de-differentiation and loss of the contractile phenotype of these cells. Our group previously demonstrated that 3D cultures of bladder SMCs subjected to sustained tension exhibited significantly greater levels of contractile phenotype markers compared to the no-tension control (2). We hypothesize that exposure of 3D culture of bladder SMCs to appropriate mechanical stimuli leads to guided cell growth and retention of contractile phenotype. The long-term objective of the present study is to develop both biomaterials and a bioreactor system that guide SMC growth for use in the tissue engineering applications.