Source: Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center
Date: March 7, 2011
Summary:
WINSTON-SALEM, NC –– Researchers at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and colleagues reported today on a new advance in tissue engineering. The team is the first in the world to use patients’ own cells to build tailor-made urinary tubes and successfully replace damaged tissue. In an article published Online First by The Lancet, the research team reports replacing damaged segments of urinary tubes (urethras) in five boys. Tests to measure urine flow and tube diameter showed that the engineered tissue remained functional throughout the six-year (median) follow-up period.
Here is a link to a summary of news media coverage about this finding from the Wake Forest University Office of Communications and External Relations.
