Urinary incontinence is a significant challenge for women who are affected by it. We propose augmenting the tissue structure to restore normal biomechanics by molecularly engineering the tissue using a novel family of biomimetic proteoglycans (BPGs). This work examines the ability of BPGs to modulate the mechanical and physical properties of porcine urethras ex vivo to determine the feasibility of BPGs to be implemented as molecular treatment for stress urinary incontinence (SUI). We investigated compliance by performing a unique radial expansion testing method using urethras from six- to nine-month-old pigs. The urethras were injected with 0.5 ml BPG solution at three sites every approximately 120° (conc.: 25 mg ml-1, 50 mg ml-1 and 75 mg ml-1 in 1× phosphate-buffered saline (PBS); n = 4 per group) and compared them with PBS-injected controls. Young's modulus was calculated by treating the urethra as a thin-walled pressure vessel. A water uptake study was performed by soaking 10 mm urethra biopsy samples that were injected with 0.1 ml BPG solution (conc.: 50 mg ml-1, 100 mg ml-1 and 200 mg ml-1 in 1× PBS; n = 6 per group) in 5 ml PBS for 24 h. Although there was no significant difference in Young's modulus data, there were differences between groups as can be seen in the raw radial expansion testing data. Results showed that BPGs have the potential to increase hydration in samples, and that there was a significant difference in water uptake between BPG-injected samples and the controls (100 mg ml-1 samples versus PBS samples, p < 0.05). This work shows that BPGs have the potential to be implemented as a molecular treatment for SUI, by restoring the diminished proteoglycan content and subsequently increasing hydration and improving the compliance of urethral tissue.

中文翻译：

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体外注射新型仿生蛋白聚糖调节猪尿道的物理特性。

对于受尿失禁影响的女性来说，尿失禁是一项重大挑战。我们建议通过使用新型的仿生蛋白聚糖（BPG）家族分子对组织进行分子工程来增强组织结构，以恢复正常的生物力学。这项工作检查BPG体外调节猪尿道的机械和物理特性的能力，以确定BPG用作压力性尿失禁（SUI）分子治疗的可行性。我们通过对6至9个月大的猪使用尿道进行独特的径向扩张测试方法，研究了其依从性。在大约120°的三个位置向尿道注射0.5 ml BPG溶液（浓度：在1x磷酸盐缓冲液（PBS）中的25 mg ml-1、50 mg ml-1和75 mg ml-1； n =每组4个），并将其与注射PBS的对照组进行比较。杨氏模量通过将尿道当作薄壁压力容器来计算。通过将10 mm尿道活检样品浸泡在0.1×BPG溶液中（浓度为50 mg ml-1、100 mg ml-1和200 mg ml-1溶于1×PBS中，n = 6）进行吸水研究每组）在5 ml PBS中放置24小时。尽管杨氏模量数据没有显着差异，但是从原始径向膨胀测试数据中可以看出，组之间存在差异。结果表明，BPG具有增加样品中水合作用的潜力，并且BPG注射样品和对照之间的吸水率存在显着差异（100 mg ml-1样品与PBS样品，p <0.05）。这项工作表明，BPG有可能被实现为SUI的分子治疗，