Chinese scientists have developed a synthetic tissue that repairs injuries and restores normal erectile function in a pig model. The findings, published in the journal “Matter,” suggest that the artificial tunica albuginea (ATA), which mimics a fibrous sheath of tissue needed to maintain erections, may hold promise for repairing erections. lesions of the penis in humans.
“We were surprised by the results of animal experiments, where the penis returned to normal erection immediately after the use of ATA,” says Xuetao Shi, a researcher at the South China University of Technology in Guangzhouand author of the study.
“The biggest advantage of ATA is that it achieves tissue-like functions by mimicking the microstructure of natural tissues,” he explains. This approach is not limited to the biomimetic design of tunica albuginea tissues, but can be extended to many other load-bearing tissues.”
Shi’s team has been focused on producing biomaterials to address male reproductive health issues, including erectile dysfunction, infertility and Peyronie’s disease, a connective tissue disorder thought to occur as a result of injury. sexual.
About half of men between the ages of 40 and 70 experience some form of erectile dysfunction, while about 5% suffer from Peyronie’s disease, in which scar tissue forms in the tunica albuginea, causing pain and a variety of other effects.
“We realized that this is an area that has received little attention, but the related need is enormous,” Shi acknowledges.
Although many previous studies have focused on repairing the urethra, there has been less research focused on restoring erectile function.
And while doctors can treat patients with damaged tunica albuginea tissue by making patches of other tissues in the patient’s body combined with extracellular matrix, these patches have drawbacks. Sometimes the immune system rejects them or complications occur in the donor area, and since their microstructure is different from that of the natural tunica albuginea, it is difficult for these patches to perfectly replace the natural tissue.
To address this problem, Shi and his colleagues developed this fabric, which is based on polyvinyl alcohol and has a crimped fiber structure similar to that of natural fabric. As a result, the synthetic material has biomechanical properties that mimic those of the tunica albuginea. The researchers conducted laboratory experiments to investigate the toxicity and blood compatibility of the artificial tissue, as it is designed to remain in the body for a long time, and determined that it should not be harmful to other tissues.
The researchers tested the ATA in Bama miniature pigs with lesions on the tunica albuginea. They found that the patches made with artificial tissue restored erectile function similar to that of normal penile tissue, suggesting that the patch successfully replaced the function of natural tissues. The researchers analyzed the effect of the ATA patches after one month and found that while the artificial tissue did not restore the microstructure of the surrounding natural tissue, it developed fibrosis comparable to that of normal tissue and achieved a normal erection after injecting saline. on the penis.
“The results one month after the procedure showed that the ATA group achieved good, but not perfect, repair results,” Shi says.
The results one month after the procedure showed that the ATA group achieved good, although not perfect, repair results.
In penile lesions, the tunica albuginea is usually not the only tissue damaged. Surrounding nerves and the corpus cavernosum, the spongy tissue that runs along the shaft of the penis, are often damaged as well, making repairs even more difficult.
“Our work at this stage is focused on repairing a single tissue in the penis, and the next stage will be to consider repairing the general penile defect or constructing a artificial penis from a holistic perspectiveShi explains.
The researchers also plan to investigate techniques to repair other tissues, including the heart and bladder.