Scaffold-based tissue engineering strategies for urethral repair and reconstruction

Abstract

Urethral strictures are common in urology; however, the reconstruction of long urethral strictures is still a major challenge. There are still unavoidable limitations in clinical application of grafts for urethral injuries, which has facilitated the advancement of urethral tissue engineering. Tissue-engineered urethral scaffolds that combine cells or bioactive factors with a biomaterial to mimic the native microenvironment of the urethra, offer a promising approach to urethral reconstruction. Despite the recent rapid development of tissue engineering materials and techniques, a consensus on the optimal strategy for urethral repair and reconstruction is still lacking. This review aims to collect the achievements of urethral tissue engineering in recent years and to categorize and summarize them in order to shed new light on their design. Finally, we visualize several important future directions for urethral repair and reconstruction.