Tissue engineering (TE) is a promising approach for repair/substitution of damaged tissues and organs. Urethral strictures are common and serious health conditions that impair quality of life and may lead to serious organ damage. The search for ideal materials for urethral repair has led to interest of scientists and surgeons in urethral TE. Over the last decades, a significant amount of preclinical studies and considerable progress have been observed. In contrast, urethral TE has made slow progress in clinical practice so far. To address this, we conducted a systematic review of the literature on clinical applications of TE constructs for urethral repair in the last three decades. In summary, the TE approach is promising and effective, but many issues remain that need to be addressed for broader adoption of TE in urethral repair. Better design of trials, better cooperation of research groups and centralization could lead to reduction of costs and slowly proceed to commercialization and routine use of TE products for urethral reconstruction.
Keywords: scaffolds; stem cells; tissue engineering; urethra; urethral reconstruction; urethral stricture.