40-60% of women and 12% of men will experience urinary tract infection (UTI) at least once in their lifetime. UTI happens when bacteria compromise and damage the interior lining of the urinary tract, called urothelium. Our goal is to understand how the urothelium regenerates in order to pave the way for the design of new non-antibiotic treatments to help reconstruct barrier function in disorders such as UTI.
Impact
Antimicrobial resistance is on the rise. Using stem cell models, we aim to unravel not only how the urothelium regenerates, but also how it constantly reshapes itself in response to urine accumulation while remaining urine-proof. This knowledge will pave the way for new treatments against disorders of the urothelium, such as UTI, that plague millions of people worldwide.
reNEW research
Associate professor Mariaceleste Aragona and her team have developed a genetically engineered urothelium from human cells that mimics the morphology of native urothelium. Furthermore, using mouse models, her and her team have begun to unravel the behaviour of bladder stem cells, and some of the complex mechanisms that allow the tissue to stretch to an extraordinary degree as the bladder fills.
Image description
Cytoskeleton of bladder umbrella cells (pink) and underlying cells (green). Umbrella cells are some of the largest cells in the body, visible with the naked eye. They protect the smaller cells below from urine and can reach 0.16 mm across.
Credits
Oscar Bay Axelsen, Research Assistant, Tissue Architecture Lab, reNEW Copenhagen.
