Dcientists at the South China University of Technology in Guangzhou have developed a synthetic fabric that can repair penile injuries and restore normal erectile function in pigs.
The albuginea tunic artificial (TAA), a fibrous sheath of tissue essential for maintaining erection, was created frompolyvinyl alcohol with a coiled fiber structure similar to that of natural fabric. It was then tested on pigs with tunica tunica albuginea lesions and found to be able to restore function to a level similar to that of normal penile tissue. The researchers said the synthetic fabric should not harm other surrounding natural penile tissue, adding that the repair results were “good, but not perfect.”
This breakthrough could be a game-changer for the millions of men suffering from penile damage and erectile dysfunction. While previous studies have focused on repairing theurethrathere has been less research on restoring damaged tunica albuginea tissue.
Lesions of the tunica albuginea may be due to mechanical impact and Peyronie’s disease, a connective tissue disorder thought to be caused by injury during sex. About 5% of men between the ages of 40 and 70 suffer from Peyronie’s disease, which leads to the formation of scar tissue in the tunica albuginea and causes pain and other effects.
Currently, clinicians can treat patients with damaged tunica albuginea tissue using patches made from other tissues of the patient’s body combined with an extracellular matrix, but these patches can be rejected by the immune system or lead to complications at the site of the operation. The artificial tunica albuginea, on the other hand, is made from polyvinyl alcohol and has a microstructure similar to that of the white coat (AT) fabric, making it a more effective substitute for natural fabric.
According to Xuetao Shi, researcher at South China Technological University in Guangzhou (China) and author of the study:
An ideal AT patch should completely mimic the natural tissue of it to reduce foreign body sensation and physical rejection. This work pursues this motivation. Also, most load-bearing soft tissues have aligned but crimped fibers. This structure and the corresponding mechanical properties are essential to their physiological function. Therefore, the strategy of building the albuginea tunic artificial could be extended to biomimetic constructs of various materials and other load-bearing tissues, such as blood vessels, intestine, cornea, bladder, tendons and myocardium.
To solve the problem of repairing damaged tissues of the white coat, researchers from South China Technological University developed TAA using polyvinyl alcohol, which has a coiled fiber structure similar to that of natural fabric. This allows the synthetic material to have biomechanical properties that mimic those of tunica albuginea. Researchers conducted laboratory experiments to study the toxicity and blood compatibility of TAA, as it is designed to stay in the body for a long time. They found that it should not be harmful to other tissues.
Reminder: TAA, artificial albuginea tunic. TA, tunica albuginea or tunica albuginea.
The researchers then tested their new synthetic fabric in an animal model, which turned out to be a bit more difficult than they had originally anticipated. Indeed, many males in the animal kingdom have a bone in their penis, called staff (penile bone), which is believed to support and prolong copulation. In a 2016 studyMatilda Brindle and Christopher Opie, of University College London, analyzed the size of the baculum in nearly 2,000 species of mammals, including primates and carnivores, and they found that the baculum appeared 145 to 95 million years old.
The baculum disappeared from the human line when our ancestors split from chimpanzees, which may have coincided with the shift to a more monogamous lifestyle, a fascinating story in itself. Needless to say, the fact that so many mammals have penile bones made this search particularly tedious.
Selon Shi :
Rabbits and rats are commonly used laboratory animals to study penile defects, but their small size makes experimental manipulation more difficult and they are not easy to observe after erection. The penis bone is an important influencing factor when considering large animals. Dogs, goats, and monkeys have very pronounced penile bones, and the penis still does not bend significantly after constructing TA defect models, so they are not suitable as experimental animals.
Finally, the researchers chose the Bama minipig as the ideal animal model to test the effectiveness of the new TAA.
Still according to Shi:
Pigs are similar in size to humans and have a similar penis length, while there is no obvious penis bone, which seems like a more ideal choice to us.
After surgically implanting TAA into Bama minipigs with tunica tunica albuginea lesions, the researchers found that the patches made from the artificial tissue were able to restore erectile function to a level similar to that of normal penile tissue, suggesting that the patch succeeded in replacing the function of natural fabric. The researchers also analyzed the effect of the TAA patches after one month and found that although the artificial tissue did not completely restore the microstructure of the surrounding natural tissue, it did develop a fibrosis similar to that of normal tissue and he was able to get a normal erection after injecting saline into the penis.
From the study: graphical summary of the study. Artificial penis Tunica albuginea bionic. (Chai et al./ Matter)
According to clinicians consulted by Shi, each year worldwide there are between 100,000 and 300,000 patients with a serious lesion of the tunica albuginea requiring surgery. As the proportion of older people is expected to increase, so will the number of people in urgent need of such treatment.
Shi points out that although BP-related disorders are not life-threatening, they can lead to problems such as penile curvature, painful erections, and even erectile dysfunction, which can seriously affect patients’ quality of life. and can also lead to psychological aspects.
Although these results are promising, the researchers note that during penile injuries, the tunica albuginea is not the only tissue that is often damaged. Nerves and corpora cavernosa can also be damaged, making repairs more difficult. That’s why researchers plan to focus on repairing entire penis defects or building an artificial penis from a holistic perspective in future studies. A similar technique could be used to repair other sensitive tissues, including those of the heart and bladder.
Before TAA is introduced into hospital operating rooms around the world, the synthetic fabric must pass a number of validation steps. First, the researchers must guarantee that the material will work over the long term, i.e. it should remain stable even after 3 to 5 years of use. In the meantime, the researchers say they are constantly refining and improving the tissue and surgical technique.
The study published in the journal Matter: Bionic artificial penis White coat and presented by Cell via Eurekalert: An artificial tissue restores erectile function in pigs.