LAB-GROWN PENIS COULD SOON BE UP TO IT

摘要

Four women have received bioengineered vaginas (see main story), but when will men who need penile reconstruction benefit from the same advances? The penis has two columns of tissue called the corpora cavernosa, which fill with blood during an erection. In 2006, a team led by Anthony Atala, who also led the vaginal transplant work, took cells from rabbit penises and grew erectile tissue from them in the lab. The resulting epithelial and smooth muscle cells were seeded onto a collagen scaffold taken from another rabbit. They then implanted the scaffold back into rabbits which had had most of their penis surgically removed.