title: Amniotic stem cells repair ureteric defect: a study to evaluate the feasibility of amniotic membrane as a graft in surgical reconstruction.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Amniotic membrane is considered a promising procedure as a graft in the field of ophthalmology and skin reconstruction. It has been shown to decrease inflammation, fibrosis, elicit no host immune reaction and also has antibiotic actions.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Recently, the amnion has been shown to contain cells capable of plasticity. Therefore, we felt its application could be extended to include surgical reconstruction.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used ureteric reconstruction to study the feasibility of the amnion as a graft in these situations. We induced different degrees of injury in the ureter of dogs and reconstructed the defect with amniotic membrane. In addition, we also studied the effects of supplying the graft with a source of blood supply.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The subjects were sacrificed after 6 weeks and histopathological examination showed impressive repair of the defect.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The post reconstruction complications seen with present grafts were not seen with amniotic membrane. Therefore, amniotic membrane has produced noteworthy results and its potential should be further evaluated in order to be used as a cheap, readily available source of graft for the various surgical reconstruction procedures.
authors.affiliation: Department General Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Alaa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ismail
authors.forename: Rafik Ramsis
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Marcos
authors.forename: Amr A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Sherif
authors.forename: Aly
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thabet
authors.forename: Helmy
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: El-Ghor
authors.forename: Eleya A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Ishac
authors.forename: Shereen B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Barsoun
authors.forename: Andaleeb
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chowdhury
authors.forename: Abdulafez
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Selim
keywords: Amniotic membrane; Regenerative medicine; Stem cells