Pediatric Urinary Bladder Tissue Engineering

Tissue engineering is a multi-disciplinary field that is continually evolving and functions through the amalgamation of principles and practices derived from materials science, clinical medicine and the basic biological sciences. The goals of tissue engineering based therapies are to reconstitute the anatomic milieu and physiological function of diseased or damaged tissue in order to improve the poorly functioning target organ. With the advent of new synthetic polymers and advancements in stem cell biology, the combinatorial and/or synergistic effects of these disciplines has greatly advanced tissue engineering as a whole, particularly in the field of bladder tissue engineering. This book focuses on the current state of bladder tissue engineering with a specific emphasis on the use of autologous and allogenic cell sources, as well as biologic and synthetic matrices that influence cell growth and differentiation that can be used for future bladder tissue engineering applications.