A damaged penis can be brought back into line by applying a synthetic “plaster” to it. At least in pigs.
There is a small taboo in men – erection problems. Yet at least 17% of Dutch men suffer from it. Between the ages of 40 and 70 this also applies to half. Often the cause is damage (e.g. due to illness or “abuse”). A team of researchers from the South China University of Technology now seems to have found a solution: a piece of artificial tissue to replace the damaged part. According to the publication in Question erections are possible afterwards.
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Repair the wound
The penis contains spongy erectile tissue that fills with blood when aroused, causing it to become erect. To ensure that blood does not flow back immediately, the white coat (TA) the blood vessels at the beginning of the penis together. If there is damage to the TA, maintaining an erection becomes a difficult story.
There is actually little research on restoring erectile function. The only currently existing method is to repair the “wound” by sticking a piece of tissue from another part of the body onto it. The disadvantage is that the immune system may reject the ‘patch’ and, moreover, the method often does not work sufficiently.
Synthetic penis
Xuetao Shi and colleagues have now constructed a synthetic fabric made from polyvinyl alcohol (a substance that’s already used in latex paints, glue and hairspray, among other things). This artificial white coat (ATA) has the same curly microstructure as natural TA.
After successful laboratory tests, testing followed – the artificial “pencil patch” was used minivarken with damage in their TA. After a month, a large proportion of the males were found to have a stiff (curled) lance again after injecting a saline solution (see photo above this article).
Researchers think they know why not all pigs benefited fully from the fix. In addition to AT, other penile tissues may also be affected, such as the erectile tissue mentioned earlier. Shi and her team hope to find solutions for this in the future as well. Who knows, it might even be possible to build a fully synthetic penis.
Sources: Question, Cell Pres via EurekAlert!
Image: Alexa/Pixabay
