Treatment procedure & Technology

For the treatment of urethral strictures / urethral stenoses with MukoCell, a small oral biopsy from the patient’s buccal mucosa is taken within an outpatient visit. These cells are used for the manufacture of the autologous tissue-engineered graft in our GMP laboratory (Good Manufacturing Practice). After three weeks the process is complete and the graft is delivered to the hospital, where it is implanted into the patient’s urethra. Depending on the length of the stricture any required amount of MukoCell grafts can be produced within the three-week period.

The appointment of the transplantation is scheduled after the biopsy and cannot be postponed.

Tissue engineering is the artificial production of biological tissues by cell culturing. The obtained tissue replaces or repairs the patient’s own diseased tissue. Typically, the cells are extracted from the patient and expanded in the laboratory under clean-room conditions. Depending on the cell type, cells can be cultured on so-called matrices (a structural skeleton substance). Products obtained from tissue engineering belong to the group of medicinal products targeted for providing novel therapies; they are one of the application examples of regenerative and personalized medicine.