Impact of fibrin glue and urinary bladder cell spraying on the in-vivo acellular matrix cellularization: a porcine pilot study.

PURPOSE: Urinary bladder tissue engineering utilizing autologous cell-seeded scaffolds requires enough bladder cells to populate a large surface area which may be difficult to obtain from abnormal bladders. We evaluated whether a fibrin glue spray technique enhances cell seeded acellular matrix (ACM) repopulation in a porcine bladder model. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Porcine urothelial and smooth muscle cells cultured from open bladder biopsy were sprayed with or without fibrin glue onto porcine bladder ACM. After 10 days in vitro, constructs were implanted onto porcine bladders (4/group) and harvested after 1 or 6 weeks for H&E and immunohistochemical staining. RESULTS: In vitro, fibrin glue was associated with more continuous cell growth and enhanced cellular organization, maintained particularly in the periphery in vivo, where both groups demonstrated central fibrosis. CONCLUSIONS: While fibrin glue enhanced cellular organization on ACM in vitro, central fibrosis in vivo suggests that factors supporting seeded cell survival are lacking.