Quantitative results of the analysis of human bioengineered tissues corresponding to the work "Generation and ex vivo characterization of a full-thickness substitute of the human urethra by tissue engineering"

This dataset corresponds to the quantitative data generated in the work entitled " Generation and ex vivo characterization of a full-thickness substitute of the human urethra by tissue engineering ".

Tissue engineering may offer efficient alternatives for the surgical repair of severe conditions affecting the human urethra. However, development of tubular full-thickness substitutes is challenging. In this work, we have generated and evaluated ex vivo a novel model of the human urethra containing the three main layers of this structure, including the urethral mucosa (UM), the spongy layer (SP) and the tunica albuginea (AL). Results first showed that the generation of a full-thickness human urethra substitute (FHUS) significantly improved the biomechanical properties of this artificial tissue, although the resistance of the native urethra was not reached. At the structural level, we found that the bioengineered urethra shared important histological similarities with the native urethra, with cells immersed in fibrin and fibrin-agarose biomaterials showing high cell viability and proliferation rate. Analysis of the UM showed a stratified epithelium that tended to differentiate with the culture time, and expressed several epithelial markers, including cytokeratins CK7 and CK14, uroplakin 1b, and the intercellular junction proteins desmoplakin, TJP1 and claudin, although at lower levels than the native control. At the stromal level, UM tended to increase the presence of collagen fibers and versican with time, although the normal levels of the control were not reached. The SP layer contained abundant CD31 and CD34-positive blood vessels, but the number found in control urethra was not reached, and contained low amounts of collagen, proteoglycans and versican. The AL also showed low amounts of these three components, although versican tended to increase with time, and showed smooth muscle cells scattered along the tissue showing positive signal for the α-smooth muscle actin, smoothelin and desmin cell markers, with desmin tending to increase with the culture time. Analysis of the basement membrane components collagen IV and laminin revealed the progressive development of these proteins with time, especially for collagen IV, in UM, SP and AL. These results suggest that development of a full-thickness substitute of the human urethra is feasible, and this tissue substitute showed partial levels of biomimicry to the native urethra. These urethral substitutes might have potential clinical usefulness for the clinical repair of severe urethral lesions.