Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 10, 2026
Surgical Model for Single-Staged Tissue-Engineered Urothelial Tubes in Minipigs
Published on: July 5, 2024
Bladder wall replacement by tissue engineering and autologous keratinocytes in minipigs
Bernhard Brehmer1, Dorothea Rohrmann, Günter Rau
1Urological Clinic, University Clinic, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technical University of Aachen, Pauwelsstrasse 30, 52074 Aachen, Germany. bernhard.brehmer@post.rwth-aachen.de
Objective:
To develop a tissue-engineered bladder wall replacement with autologous cells and a biodegradable scaffold, as whenever there is a lack of native urological tissue the bladder is reconstructed with different bowel segments, which has inevitable complications.
Material And Methods:
Skin biopsies were taken from six minipigs, and primary fibroblast and keratinocyte cell cultures established. A partial resection of the urinary bladder was reconstructed by a cell-seeded scaffold covered with completely differentiated epithelium and supported by a mucosa-free pedicled ileum graft. Each pig was assessed urodynamically and by cystography before operation and every month until explantation; the pigs were killed at 1, 2 and 3 months after augmentation. Control groups (of six pigs each) with bladder augmentation with complete or denuded ileum were used. The bladders were assessed histologically and by distensibility measurements
Results:
The differentiated keratinocyte epithelium was still present on the reconstructed bladder wall after 3 months. The overall shrinkage rate was 6.5%. The engineered bladder wall had lower distensibility than the native one. The inflammatory reaction present initially had disappeared after 3 months.
Conclusions:
The implanted, tissue-engineered substitution of the bladder wall is not only a bridging graft, but also a complete reconstruction. With this model, extended bladder wall substitution seems feasible and should be investigated in further studies.
