by Aimee Keenan-Greene

Researchers successfully used a patients' own cells to grow urinary tubes to replace damaged tissue in five young boys.

The new study, just published in the journal Lancet,  is another  first in the expanding field of regenerative medicine and could lead doctors to eventually be able to replace whole organs.

Five boys who had urethral defects were included in the study.

A tissue biopsy was taken from each patient, and the muscle and epithelial cells were expanded and seeded onto tubularised polyglycolic acid:poly(lactide-co-glycolide acid) scaffolds.

Patients then underwent urethral reconstruction with the tissue-engineered tubularised urethras.

"Urine flow tests and tube diameter measurements show the tissue-engineered urethras are still working after six years," Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina told Reuters. 

Complex urethral problems can occur as a result of injury, disease, or congenital defects and treatment options are often limited. 

Urethras, similar to other long tubularised tissues, can stricture after reconstruction.

Reuters says Atala's team was the first to grow hollow organs for use as bladders in nine children in 1998.