Tissue engineering as a new treatment option for female pelvic organ prolapse

Pelvic organ prolapses (POP) are highly common, affecting over 300 million women worldwide. The first prolapse is usually surgically repaired with patient's own fascia, however the probability of relapse is high. The relapsed POP are operated using nondegradable polypropylene (PP) meshes causing a lot of problems such as pelvic pain, mesh erosion and migration and thus almost all PP meshes have been recalled. We aim to overcome these problems related to nondegradable mesh by the means of tissue engineering, which is a multidisciplinary field of science combining cells, biomaterials and bioactive molecules. Until now, tissue engineering in POP applications has been an understudied field of science. We are aiming to develop synthetic biodegradable scaffold structures for POP applications, and we are studying the different factors in order to achieve native like fascia. If this project is successful, we are one step closer in developing new treatment methods for women suffering from POP.