Experimental study on transplantation of autologous minced muscle with human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells for urethral reconstruction.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the feasibility and efficiency of the autologous minced muscle-derived regenerate as a living patch graft for the urethral reconstruction with the assistance of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (hUC-MSCs) in the rabbit model. MATERIALS AND METHODS The hUC-MSCs and minced-muscle-derived regenerate tissue was prepared and used as potential autologous patch graft for the reconstruction of the defective rabbit urethra. Animal with autologous free skeletal muscle piece was observed as control. Histopathological and immunohistochemical staining methods were adopted to evaluate the regenerating effect; the reconstructive effects in New Zealand rabbit were observed in both groups by retrograde urethrography and urinary microscopy. RESULTS The expression of desmin and anti-human specific nuclear antigen (ANA) were positive for co-culture microsomes in vivo and in vitro; after the reconstructive surgery, histopathological studies revealed fibrous connective tissues and abundant muscle fibers constituted the main body of the patch-grafted urethra. Urethrography and urethroscopy showed no urethral obstruction, stenosis, fistula or diverticula anomaly existed in experimental group. CONCLUSIONS Our preclinical study showed that the hUC-MSCs and minced-muscle-derived regenerate could be used as an autologous pre-vascularized living patch graft for urethral reconstruction.