Quantitative results of the analysis of functional and histological parameters corresponding to the work "In vivo evaluation of a multilayered, fibrin-agarose urethral substitute generated by tissue engineering"

This dataset corresponds to the quantitative data generated in the work entitled "In vivo evaluation of a multilayered, fibrin-agarose urethral substitute generated by tissue engineering”.
Background: Tissue engineered urethral substitutes could offer alternative approaches for urethral repair and regeneration. In the present work, we generated and evaluated in vivo a multilayered urethral substitute generated with nanostructured fibrin-agarose biomaterials; Methods: A three-layered urethral substitute was generated and grafted to repair a surgically induced penile urethra defect in laboratory rabbits (UREG group). Native urethras served as positive controls (P-CTR), urethral damage repaired without grafts were used as negative controls (N-CTR), and oral mucosa autografts (AUTO), as the gold-standard treatment. Results were analyzed after 3 months of follow-up for surgical feasibility, fistulas or complications, shape of the urine stains and histological, histochemical and immunohistochemical analyses of the urethra; Results: All procedures were feasible, and no severe complications were found in any of the group. However, 2 of 5 animals in the N-CTR and 2/5 in the AUTO group developed urethral fistulas, with none in the AUTO group. Altered urine stains appeared in 3/5 animals in the N-CTR and AUTO groups, and in 1/5 in UREG. Histologically, the UREG implants resembled the native urethra, with high expression of pancytokeratin, cytokeratins 7, 8 and 19, involucrin and uroplakin, and positive expression of versican, biglycan and decorin at the stromal layer, with similar collagen and glycosaminoglycan contents. However, UREG urethras had lower alcian blue staining intensity, higher number of blood vessels and a discontinuous muscular layer at the grafting site. In contrast, N-CTR and AUTO groups failed to reproduce the structure and molecular composition of the native urethra; Conclusions: A multilayered fibrin-agarose urethral substitute generated by tissue engineering could support urethral regeneration in an animal model of urethral repair. These findings highlight its potential as a promising alternative for urethral reconstruction.