SALT – Surya Akio Horiguchi Lab for Tissue Engineering
Urethral stricture, especially in men, is a painful condition caused by scarring that narrows the urethra. It leads to difficulty urinating, pain, sexual dysfunction, kidney damage and other complications, significantly impacting the quality of life. Despite available treatments such as dilatation and urethroplasty, recurrence remains a major challenge.
While urologists worldwide are seeking a definitive and easily applicable solution, a groundbreaking idea by Prof. Dr. Surya Prakash Vaddi, a Senior Consultant Urologist, Transplant, and Robotic Surgeon (Consultant & Head; Surya Kidney Centre, Professor of Urology, Kamineni Medical College Hospital, Hyderabad, India) laid the foundation for the BEES HAUS project in 2012.
Dr. Surya Vaddi, upon learning about the work of the Nichi-In Centre for Regenerative Medicine (NCRM) and GN Corporation in culturing buccal mucosal cells for bilateral corneal epithelial diseases, proposed an innovative approach—using buccal mucosal epithelial cells encapsulated in a polymer for treating urethral strictures. While buccal mucosal grafts were already being used for urethral strictures, they were associated with oral donor tissue morbidity and persistent recurrence of strictures.
Following necessary ethics approvals and regulatory clearances, a pilot clinical study was conducted at Narayana Medical College, and the outcomes were published in the International Journal of Urology.
Recognizing the potential of this novel approach, Prof. Dr. Akio Horiguchi Consultant Urologist & Reconstructive Surgeon at National Defense Medical College Hospital, Saitama, Japan, collaborated with Dr. Surya Vaddi and GN Corporation. Dr. Horiguchi had already developed an animal model for urethral stricture and he conducted the experiments for standardization of BEES HAUS technology for routine clinical application.
Recently, under the Japanese Regenerative Medicine Law, the procedure has been approved for clinical application in Japan. To honor these contributions, GN Corporation (Japan), NCRM and Soul Synergy (Mauritius) have named their collaborative Initiative on Tissue Engineering as the SALT – Surya Akio Horiguchi Lab for Tissue Engineering.
This initiative is dedicated to:
. Conducting research to develop perfect solutions for urethral stricture.
. Undertaking clinical studies and applications tailored to different regions after regional regulatory approvals.
. Expanding the technology for epithelial damage in strictures of the esophagus, colon, and other tissues
Further interactions among and between the Urologists who have spearheaded the BEES HAUS technique, insights from our team of inter-disciplinary physician-scientists on maintenance of the integrity of the urothelium in preventing the recurrence of urethral stricture and learning from the literature, especially by Nikolavsky et al, has led to development of a simplified approach of BHES-HAUS procedure (Buccal epithelium Hashed and Encapsulated in Scaffold — Hybrid Approach to Urethral Stricture). This procedure is especially indicated to manage urinary retention in a specific set of urethral stricture patients on an emergency basis, in whom we cannot wait for a two-week period for in vitro culture of autologous buccal tissue derived cells for transplant after urethrotomy.
https://www.ncrm.org/myth/bheshaus/
A clinical trial is currently under progress
https://ctri.nic.in/Clinicaltrials/pmaindet2.php?EncHid=MTM2MTY1&Enc=&userName=
Thanks to the polymer scientists for helping in the development of safer variant of the scaffold free from endotoxin, the “FESTIGEL” (Free-from-Endotoxin-excess-Scaffold of Thermoresponsive Intelli-GEL) which has made possible, the BEES HAUS and now the BHES-HAUS.
For details on the BEES HAUS technology, visit:
