Tissue-engineered urinary bladder

TY - CHAP

T1 - Tissue-engineered urinary bladder

AU - Turner, Alexander M.

AU - Southgate, Jennifer

PY - 2009

Y1 - 2009

N2 - Once thought of as a passive urine storage vessel, the urinary bladder is now recognised as a dynamic, compliant mechanosensory organ, dependent upon specialised structure-function relationships to preserve renal function and urinary continence. Understanding these relationships is central to the development of successful reconstruction approaches to restore urinary capacity and continence in patients with dysfunctional or diseased bladders. In recent years, the refinement of cell culture techniques to generate clinically useful quantities of normal urothelial and bladder smooth muscle cells in the laboratory has progressed alongside advances in biomaterial technologies. The combining of these fields has produced a wide variety of potential bladder tissue engineering and regenerative reconstruction strategies for the future. The bladder functions to store urine at safe, physiological pressures, and in so doing protects the upper renal tracts from damage [1]. Its specialised structure and biomechanical properties confer high distensability, capacity and compliance, and the ability to undergo repeated voiding cycles. The adult mammalian bladder is composed of four distinct layers. The innermost layer is the urothelium, which abuts the intravesicular space and is separated by a basement membrane from the lamina propria. The lamina propria contains nervous and vascular structures embedded within a collagenous matrix. Outside the lamina propria are three loosely arranged layers of smooth muscle, and the bladder is covered externally by a single serosal layer.

AB - Once thought of as a passive urine storage vessel, the urinary bladder is now recognised as a dynamic, compliant mechanosensory organ, dependent upon specialised structure-function relationships to preserve renal function and urinary continence. Understanding these relationships is central to the development of successful reconstruction approaches to restore urinary capacity and continence in patients with dysfunctional or diseased bladders. In recent years, the refinement of cell culture techniques to generate clinically useful quantities of normal urothelial and bladder smooth muscle cells in the laboratory has progressed alongside advances in biomaterial technologies. The combining of these fields has produced a wide variety of potential bladder tissue engineering and regenerative reconstruction strategies for the future. The bladder functions to store urine at safe, physiological pressures, and in so doing protects the upper renal tracts from damage [1]. Its specialised structure and biomechanical properties confer high distensability, capacity and compliance, and the ability to undergo repeated voiding cycles. The adult mammalian bladder is composed of four distinct layers. The innermost layer is the urothelium, which abuts the intravesicular space and is separated by a basement membrane from the lamina propria. The lamina propria contains nervous and vascular structures embedded within a collagenous matrix. Outside the lamina propria are three loosely arranged layers of smooth muscle, and the bladder is covered externally by a single serosal layer.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84895255757&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/978-3-540-77755-7_32

DO - 10.1007/978-3-540-77755-7_32

M3 - Chapter

AN - SCOPUS:84895255757

SN - 9783540777540

SP - 429

EP - 440

BT - Fundamentals of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

PB - Springer

ER -