The Tissue Engineered Bladder - The Bladder Grown in a Lab
Autologous Tissue Engineered Bladder
The scientists at Children’s Hospital Boston used autologous cells to create the tissue-engineered bladders. Autologous cells are cells taken from the same patient in which they are to be used. Using autologous cells avoided the risk of tissue rejection and avoided the patient’s having to be put on immunosuppressive drugs.
Biopsy
The first step to growing an autologous tissue engineered bladder in a laboratory is doing a biopsy to take a small sample of the original bladders’ cells. Both outer muscle cells and urothelial cells are taken in the biopsy.
The Scaffold
Isolated cells are grown and expanded in a culture to produce enough cells to seed into a scaffold. The scaffold is a mesh shaped form that is constructed in the shape of a bladder. The mesh shaped scaffold is made out of collagen and polyglycolic acid. The scaffold materials are biodegradable and dissolve once implanted into the patient. Each scaffold is specially made to fit each individual patient. Once enough cells have grown in the culture, outer muscle cells are seeded onto the scaffold. Forty-eight hours later, urothelial cells are seeded onto the scaffold. The cells continue to grow on the scaffold until they form enough tissue to fully cover the scaffold and essentially become a bladder.
Surgery
Within seven to eight weeks after the biopsy, the autologous tissue engineered bladder is ready to be implanted into the patient. During the surgery to implant the tissue engineered bladder, the bladder is coated with omental tissue to encourage blood vessels to grow into the new bladder. The omental tissue used is a fatty and highly vascular tissue that is found in front of the intestines.
After Surgery
The scaffold dissolved as expected in all seven children implanted with autologous tissue engineered bladders at Children’s Hospital Boston. Five years after the surgery, observations showed the children’s autologous tissue engineered bladders were almost identical to healthy non-tissue engineered bladders.
