Soft tissue engineering for congenital birth defects in children: New treatment modalities for spina bifida, urogenital and abdominal wall defects.

PI: Gratacós.E.
Funding Agency: European Commission VI Framework Programme
Duration: 2007-2011

The aim of this project is to use modern tissue engineering approaches to treat children with structural disorders present at birth, such as spina bifida, urogenital defects, gastroschisis, diaphragmatic hernia and esophageal atresia. The project strives to take a translational route through in vitro and animal experiments to early clinical trials.

Tailor-made “smart” biomatrices (scaffolds) will be prepared using natural scaffold molecules (collagen, elastin) and/or manmade polymers (poly lactic/glycolic acid), and will be substituted with regulatory molecules such as growth factors and glycosaminoglycans.

A variety of cells, including stem cells, fibroblasts, muscle cells and urothelial/epithelial cells will be cultured in vitro and seeded into biomatrices. Biomatrices thus prepared, will be implanted using novel animal models for major congenital birth defects, and evaluated for their capacity to regenerate the correct tissues. Biomatrices will degrade in time and be replaced by the bodies own tissues thus assuring compliance with growth which is especially important in young children. Prenatal and postnatal reconstructive procedures will improve the final outcome of reconstructive surgery. Clinical trials for diaphragmatic hernias will form the start of the patient registry and protocol development for future clinical studies.

A dialogue with society, including patient’s associations, will be sought. Demonstration activities will be undertaken to increase the awareness of new treatment modalities based on tissue-engineering. Finally, surgeons will be trained to use the new operation techniques.