The feasibility of ureteral tissue engineering using autologous veins : an orthotopic animal model with long term results

  • Background: In an earlier study we demonstrated the feasibility to create tissue engineered venous scaffolds in vitro and in vivo. In this study we investigated the use of tissue engineered constructs for ureteral replacement in a long term orthotopic minipig model. In many different projects well functional ureretal tissue was established using tissue engineering in animals with short-time follow up (12 weeks). Therefore urothelial cells were harvested from the bladder, cultured, expanded in vitro, labelled with fluorescence and seeded onto the autologous veins, which were harvested from animals during a second surgery. Three days after cell seeding the right ureter was replaced with the cell-seeded matrices in six animals, while further 6 animals received an unseeded vein for ureteral replacement. The animals were sacrificed 12, 24, and 48 weeks after implantation. Gross examination, intravenous pyelogram (IVP), H&E staining, Trichrome Masson's Staining, and immunohistochemistry with pancytokeratin AE1/AE3, smooth muscle alpha actin, and von Willebrand factor were performed in retrieved specimens. Results: The IVP and gross examination demonstrated that no animals with tissue engineered ureters and all animals of the control group presented with hydronephrosis after 12 weeks. In the 24-week group, one tissue engineered and one unseeded vein revealed hydronephrosis. After 48 weeks all tissue engineered animals and none of the control group showed hydronephrosis on the treated side. Histochemistry and immunohistochemistry revealed a multilayer of urothelial cells attached to the seeded venous grafts. Comclusions: Venous grafts may be a potential source for ureteral reconstruction. The results of so far published ureteral tissue engineering projects reveal data up to 12 weeks after implantation. Even if the animal numbers of this study are small, there is an increasing rate of hydronephrosis revealing failure of ureteral tissue engineering with autologous matrices in time points longer than 3 months after implantation. Further investigations have to prove adequate clinical outcome and appropriate functional long-term results.

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Author:Oliver Engel, Robert de Petriconi, Björn G. Volkmer, Kilian GustORCiDGND, Jens ManiGND, Axel HaferkampGND, Richard E. Hautmann, Georg BartschGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-373125
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1186/1477-5751-13-17
ISSN:1477-5751
Pubmed Id:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25381044
Parent Title (English):Journal of negative results in biomedicine
Publisher:BioMed Central
Place of publication:London
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2014/11/08
Date of first Publication:2014/11/08
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2015/04/20
Tag:Reconstruction; Tissue engineering; Ureter; Urothelial cells; Vein
Volume:13
Issue:17
Page Number:9
Note:
© 2014 Engel et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
HeBIS-PPN:369103629
Institutes:Medizin / Medizin
Dewey Decimal Classification:6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 61 Medizin und Gesundheit / 610 Medizin und Gesundheit
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung 4.0