A tissue-engineered stomach as a replacement of the native stomach.
BACKGROUND
Despite recent advances in reconstruction techniques, total gastrectomy is still accompanied by various complications. As an alternative treatment, we propose a tissue-engineered stomach that replaces the mechanical and metabolic functions of a normal stomach. The objective of this study was to demonstrate the function of a tissue-engineered stomach as a replacement of the native stomach.


METHODS
Tissue-engineered stomachs were formed in recipient rats from stomach epithelium organoid units isolated from neonatal donor rats. After 12 weeks, the animals underwent a second operation for replacement of the native stomachs.


RESULTS
Tissue-engineered stomachs were successfully used as a substitute of the native stomach in a rat model. An upper gastrointestinal tract study revealed no evidence of bowel stenosis or obstruction at both anastomosis sites. Histologically, the tissue-engineered stomachs had well-developed vascularized tissue with a neomucosa continuously lining the lumen and stratified smooth muscle layers. Immunohistochemical staining for alpha-actin smooth muscle showed that the smooth muscle layers were arranged in a regular fashion. Scanning electron microscopy showed that the surface topography of the tissue-engineered stomachs resembled that of native stomachs.


CONCLUSIONS
It has been demonstrated that a tissue-engineered stomach can replace a native stomach in a rat model. Replacement of the native stomach by a tissue-engineered stomach had beneficial effects on the formation of neomucosa and smooth muscle layers in the tissue-engineered stomach.
Maemura
Tomoyuki
T
Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Shin
Michael
M
Sato
Michio
M
Mochizuki
Hidetaka
H
Vacanti
Joseph P
JP
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D005743:Gastrectomy; D005753:Gastric Mucosa / Q000166:cytology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D023421:Models, Animal; D051381:Rats; D011917:Rats, Inbred Lew; D013270:Stomach / Q000637:transplantation*; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D014185:Transplantation, Isogeneic
D001672:Biocompatible Materials