Nanostructured and 3D Bioprinted Cellular Surgical Constructs for Pelvic Organ Prolapse Treatment

Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) results from childbirth injury, affecting 25% of all women. It causes bladder, bowel and sexual dysfunction. POP is treated by surgery, frequently augmented by mesh, but failure and complication rates are high. We are investigating a regenerative medicine approaches to improve treatment outcomes using cell-based therapy delivered in novel degradable biomaterials. To this end we have designed nanomeshes and 3D printed meshes which are boosted with therapeutic human endometrial mesenchymal stem cells (eMSC). There are 3 projects available to examine the effect of using these bioengineered constructs as surgical implants in animal models. 1. The first project looks at the foreign body response to implanted meshes in aged parous sheep 2. The second examines the effect of varying design aspects of 3D printing such as porosity, mesh fiber thickness etc. on the surgical performance of meshes. 3. We are also examining the biomechanics of the tissues at the nanoscale using atomic force microscopy to understand the overall strength of the tissues after treatment.