[HotRod]

I'm just going to post some articles I find in the news from time to time. This one is particularly interesting because it deals with experiments with smooth muscle tissue in rabbit penises. It portends a surgical procedure on human males, but it may turn out to be the only way to treat certain penile injuries. Meanwhile, it's an important study that relates to the smooth muscle theory often discussed here on PE Gym. - HotRod

The Times November 10, 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle6909899.ece

Genital damage could be reversed after tissue is grown in laboratory
Mark Henderson, Science Editor

Damaged human genitals could eventually be restored to full function after penis tissue has been successfully grown in the laboratory and implanted into animals.

Scientists in the United States have replaced the erectile tissue of rabbits with a cultured version grown from cells in a dish, restoring normal sexual function and allowing the animals to father offspring.

The research is the most successful attempt yet to engineer penis tissue that works normally when implanted, and promises to have benefits for reconstructive surgery for human patients.

At present there are few options for men who suffer penis damage because of injury or cancer, or who are born with genital abnormalities. While the penis can sometimes be rebuilt for cosmetic effect, it is rarely possible to restore sexual function because erectile tissue cannot be replaced.

The research suggests that it should, ultimately, be possible to grow new erectile tissue using cells from the penis seeded on to a shaped 3-D lattice.

This could also be used to help men with certain forms of impotence caused by tissue damage. Another potential application is in cosmetic surgery for penis enlargement, though this will be limited by the risk of damage to a healthy organ.

The procedure is unlikely to be useful for female-to-male transsexuals, however, because the erectile tissue has been grown from penis cells. Stem-cell methods could provide a solution but further research would be needed.

Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in North Carolina, who led the research, said: “Further studies are required, of course, but our results are encouraging and suggest that the technology has considerable potential for patients who need penile reconstruction.

“Our hope is that patients with congenital abnormalities, penile cancer, traumatic injury and some cases of erectile dysfunction will benefit from this technology in the future.”

The success of reconstructive surgery for damaged male genitals has been limited by the complex structure of the mammalian penis. Erections rely on a pair of chambers of sponge-like tissue, known as the corpora cavernosa penis (cave-like bodies of the penis), which fill with blood on sexual arousal to make the organ stiff.

These can be lost because of surgery for penile cancer or traumatic injury, or they can be small or absent because of congenital abnormalities. The corpora cavernosa can also atrophy in some forms of impotence, for example among prostate cancer patients who have no erections for a long time after surgery.

Reconstructive techniques generally rely on rebuilding the penis using skin and tissue from the arm or leg and rolled up around the urethra. This can then be attached to nerves to provide some sexual sensation, and stiffened for intercourse by inserting a silicone prosthesis.

In the research, which was published in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr Atala’s team first removed smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells, which line blood vessels, from the erectile tissue of rabbit penises.

These were then injected into a 3-D scaffold and cultured so that they multiplied along it. The tissue-covered scaffold was then implanted back into the rabbits’ penises, from which erectile tissue had been excised.

The results were an improvement on previous experiments, in which the Wake Forest team had managed to create erectile tissue with about 50 per cent of normal function. A new technique was used to seed the scaffold with smooth muscle cells twice, allowing it to hold six times as many as was previously possible.

The extra smooth muscle cells seem to be important to restoring sexual function because they play an important role in erections. The muscle cells relax during arousal, triggered by the release of nitric oxide from endothelial cells, allowing blood to engorge the penis.

“Increasing the density of smooth muscle cells led to normal erectile pressures within the tissue,” Dr Atala said. “These results are encouraging. They indicate the possibility of using laboratory-engineered tissue in men who require reconstructive procedures. A lack of erectile tissue currently prevents us from restoring sexual function to these patients.”

[HotRod]

This article from UK Medix gives a little more detail on this research. - HotRod

New Impotence Cure Using Artificially Grown Penile Tissues
New Impotence Cure Using Artificially Grown Penile Tissues - UKMedix Health News
Written by Jamie Stowe | Saturday, 14 November 2009 | There are 0 comments


New hope for men suffering from severe erectile dysfunction could be on its way after a new study done with rabbits produced impressive results. The researchers who experimented on a group of rabbits who had damaged penises used specially grown laboratory penile tissue which was then surgically implanted into them. Incredibly it was seen that within a month new blood vessel structures started to grow and soon the rabbits had fully restored sexual function.

The researchers got the previously sexually impotent male rabbits to meet up with 12 female rabbits and four of them ended up pregnant proving the effectiveness of the treatment. Dr. Anthony Atala who led the research and who is the director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine based at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center explained that this research could lead to further applications for humans. It would be especially useful for men who suffered from traumatic penile injuries, penile cancer or severe cases of erectile dysfunction which don’t respond to the normal drugs Viagra, Cialis and Levitra.

It really does seem likely over the next ten years that men will be able to have operations to have artificial penile tissue inserted into their penises which would make them stronger and more effective. It could even possibly be used for penis enlargement therapy too. Professor Andrew McCullough from the NYU Langone Medical Center said that it usually takes ten years “from discovery to FDA approval”.

Professor McCullough also spoke about how research in this area could lead to other discoveries for tissue regeneration for other organs in the body. Maybe in the future this organ regeneration treatment could also be used to treat women suffering from female sexual dysfunction as well as for both men and women with internal organ damage. The research was published in full by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


© 2009 This content has been exclusively written by UKMedix