Ex vivo functional evaluation of isolated strips in BAMG tissue-engineered bladders

Although gastrointestinal segments have been widely used for bladder augmentation, they are still not considered ideal sources due to the possibility of complications. In this study, with the aim of reducing complications, we performed bladder augmentation in pigs using bladder acellular matrix grafts (BAMG) as a scaffold. Three months after surgery, the BAMG tissue-engineered bladders revealed bladder reconstruction that morphologically resembled that of the normal bladder. Functional experiments were performed to evaluate the contractile characteristics of isolated strips from both normal and BAMG tissue-engineered bladders 3 months after augmentation. No significant differences between these two groups were found in spontaneous contraction and contraction after electric stimulation; in the relaxing effect of epinephrine on potassium chloride-induced twitch height; in the contracting effects of acetylcholin; or in the antagonistic effect of atropine on acetylcholine-induced contraction. These results demonstrate that not only can BAMG tissue-engineered bladders be histologically reconstructed, they also possess electrophysiological and pharmacological characteristics similar to normal bladders. This further confirms BAMG as an ideal scaffold for bladder augmentation.