Tissue engineering for penile surgery: comparative study of noncellular and cell-seeded synthetic grafts for tunica albuginea replacement

Abstract

Introduction: Surgical treatment outcomes in Peyronie's disease remain controversial because of high rates of recurrence.

Aim: The aim of this study was to engineer in vitro a new type of tunica albuginea (TA) autologous graft obtained by culture of autologous fibroblast on a polyglycolic acid (PGA) scaffold. This engineering graft was compared with PGA with morphological and functional outcomes for TA replacement, 4 months after graft upon corpus cavernosum in a rat model.

Methods: Thirty-nine Sprague Dawley adult male rats were divided into four groups: (i) control group (C) with resection and resuture of a 5 mm long and 2 mm large piece of original TA; (ii) PGA scaffold group (P) with the same resection of TA and suture of PGA scaffold; (iii) autologous fibroblast-seeded on PGA scaffold graft after resection of the same piece of TA (F + P); and (iv) sham group for functional and histological comparison.

Main outcome measure: The main outcome measure was assessment of graft size variation at 4 months and comparison between the three test groups. The secondary objective is assessment of erectile function by measuring erectile response to cavernous nerve electrical stimulation in each group.

Results: At 4 months, there was a significant difference in graft area retraction between the groups (P = 0.0081) with higher retraction in P group vs. in C or F + P groups. Erectile response to cavernous nerve stimulation significantly differed between the groups and was sham equivalent to C equivalent to F + P superior to P group.

Conclusions: This study provides experimental evidence for the feasibility and the functionality of fibroblast-seeded scaffold compared with acellular graft for TA replacement.