Future Perspectives in Bladder Tissue Engineering.

Substantial clinical need persists for improved autologous tissues to augment or replace the urinary bladder and research has begun to address this using tissue engineering techniques. The implantation of both tissue scaffolds which allow for native bladder tissue ingrowth and autologous bladder grafts created from in vitro cellularization of such scaffolds have been tested clinically; however, successful outcomes in both scenarios have been challenged by insufficient vascularity resulting from large graft sizes, which subsequently limits tissue ingrowth and leads to central graft ischemia. Consequently, recent research has focused on developing better methods to produce scaffolds with increased tissue ingrowth and vascularity. This review provides an update on bladder tissue engineering and outlines the challenges that remain to clinical implementation.