Construction of tissue-engineered corpus cavernosum with muscle-derived stem cells and transplantation in vivo

What's known on the subject? and What does the study add? The tissue-engineered research of corpus cavernosum has been studied, but an ideal method was not carried out. In the study, muscle-derived stem cells were used as seeding cells to construct tissue-engineered corpus cavernosums. The result demonstrated MDSCs could be seeded on three-dimensional scaffolds of acellular corporal collagen matrices and developed into tissues similar to native corpus cavernosum in vivo. OBJECTIVE To investigate the feasibility of tissue-engineered corpus cavernosum (TECC) with muscle-derived stem cells (MDSCs) as seed cells and determine the growth potential in vivo. MATERIALS AND METHODS Acellular corporal collagen matrices (ACCMs) were obtained from adult rabbit penis by a cell removal procedure. MDSCs were separated and purified using a digestion method and Preplate technique, then seeded on ACCMs at a concentration of 30 x 106 cells/mL to construct TECCs. After 5 days of culture, seeded ACCMs were implanted with albuginea of rabbits. The implants were retrieved at 2, 4 and 6 months after implantation. Histochemistry, immunohistochemisry and scanning electron microscopy were performed to analyse the morphological characteristics of the TECCs. RESULTS The decellularization process successfully extracted all cellular components while preserving the original collagen fibres. Histological analyses of the explants at all time points in the experimental group had more cells and better arranged growth than the control group. alpha-Smooth muscle actin and endothelial nitric oxide synthase-positive cells were more prevalent in the experimental group. CONCLUSION Our study showed that MDSCs can be seeded on three-dimensional ACCM scaffolds and develop tissues that are similar to native normal corpus cavernosum.