Evaluation of electrospun bioresorbable scaffolds for tissue-engineered urinary bladder augmentation.

Tissue engineering represents a potential and valuable approach for the treatment of urologic pathologies. Bioresorbable polymeric scaffolds can be regarded as effective platforms to surgically treat bladder diseases and subsequently guide the formation of novel tissue after implantation. To this aim, the evaluation of electrospun scaffolds made up of poly(ε-caprolactone) blended with poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) is presented here. Firstly, the microstructure and the viscoelastic/mechanical properties of the electrospun fabrics were investigated. Then, the in vivo response was assessed by performing a urinary bladder augmentation using female Wistar rats as an animal model. 15 days after the surgical procedure, the scaffolds were covered by regenerative urothelium up to 50%, which increased to 50-100% after 30 days. These encouraging results, collected in the 90-day follow-up, clearly showed the potential applications of tissue engineering in the urologic field. A longer in vivo evaluation is currently underway.