ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the role of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in urological disease modeling and repair. In addition, autologous iPSCs can be derived from patients, and such patient-specific iPSC lines would be more compatible with the immune system, thus providing an attractive potential cell source for cellular therapy. The birth abnormalities include hypospadias, where the urethral opening develops proximal to its normal location, and bladder exstrophy, where the bladder develops on the outer surface of the abdomen. In 2006, Atala et al. reported the first human clinical trial with engineered bladders, using autologous cells seeded onto biomaterials. Muscle layers were thick in bladders reconstructed with cell-seeded grafts and very thin in acellular grafts. The urinary tract drains urine from the kidneys, and the lower urinary tract consists of two ureters, the bladder and the urethra, and is responsible for the storage and the evacuation of the urine.
