[Urethra Reconstruction with Tissue-Engineering Technology]

Urethral stricture is a disease characterized by a pathological narrowing of the urethra. Treatment for this condition often requires surgery using autologous grafts (urethroplasty). It is common practice to use patient’s own tissue like genital and extragenital skin, tunica vaginalis, buccal mucosa as a source of the graft. Alternative and safer approach is to use tissue-engineered graft created in a laboratory using patient’s autologous cells and biocompatible matrix (scaffold). The article presents the up-to-date achievements in lab-created tissue-engineered graft, describes all components needed to build a tissue-engineered structure of the graft for urethroplasty, and summarizes authors’ thoughts on advantages and disadvantages of various approaches to choose both cellular component and the matrix of future construction. The article reviews clinical studies conducted in the field of tissue engineering of the graft material for urethraplasty.