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Hope for ED Sufferers as Penile Erectile Tissue Grown in Lab |
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Written by Theresa Maher
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Tuesday, 10 November 2009 |
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TUESDAY, November 10, (News Locale) - There's some good news on the anvil for erectile dysfunction patients after scientists reported a major success in growing penile erectile tissue in the lab. Scientists from Wake Forest University in North Carolina were able to replace the erectile tissue in the penis of rabbits, which then went on to have normal sexual function and were also able to produce offspring.
The finding offers hope for many men who are unable to achieve regular erections either due to injury or disease. Thus far scientists have been unable to reconstruct penile tissue due to its complex structure and function. Silicone prosthesis has been used with minimal success.
In previous research efforts, the Wake Forest team had already grown whole human bladders that have been implanted into patients. Earlier they reported success in bioengineering rabbit erectile tissue that was able to restore 50% of sexual function.
"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," lead researcher Professor Anthony Atala said.
In this study, the researchers harvested smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells from the erectile tissue of the rabbits. This was then multiplied in the lab and allowed to grow in a scaffold before being implanted into the rabbits' organs.
Reporting online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers said erectile tissue with blood vessel structures began to grow within 30 days after implantation. The authors noted that the cells were injected into the scaffolds on two separate days and this may have enabled the growth of twice the amount of smooth muscle cells, which are key to an erection.
The animals with engineered tissue were allowed to mate and sperm was detected in 8 of the 12 cases, while four females got pregnant. The researchers said further research was needed to assess the efficacy of the implanted tissue, but expressed confidence that the method would work in humans as well.
According to the National Institutes of Health, 5 percent of 40-year-old men and between 15 and 25 percent of 65-year-old men experience erectile dysfunction at some point in their lives. Doctors say new methods to treat this condition are badly needed as ED drugs like Viagra, Cialis and Levitra do not work in 35% of cases. This new method holds promise, but still has a long way to go before human trials begin.
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