Scientists Want to Bioengineer Bladders

British scientists are striving to discover methods that can be used to restore continence to patients with serious bladder conditions, including cancer.

The University of York researchers are studying urothelial cells — the specialized cells that line the bladder, enabling it to retain urine. Such cells have a very low turnover rate, but scientists have found that if the bladder is damaged, the urothelial cells are able to rapidly regrow to repair the wound.

The researchers hope to harness that property to bioengineer new bladders.

Currently, substitute bladders can be created by using a section of the patient’s bowel, said lead investigator Professor Jenny Southgate. But this can lead to complications, as the bowel does not have the same urine-holding properties as urothelial cells. One solution could be to use laboratory-grown urothelial cells to line a section of bowel.

Southgate said the hope is that collaborative research to combine her work with biomaterial studies at the Universities of Durham and Leeds could produce engineered bladder tissue ready for transplantation.

The research is presented in the magazine of Britain’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.