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Prosthetic replacements for diseased or injured testes leave an obvious
problem, says Anthony Atala of Weston, Massachusetts: they cannot produce the
male sex hormone testosterone. So he has devised a prosthetic testicle made from
a scaffold of biodegradable polylactide or polyglycolic acid polymer (WO
01/82828), which can be seeded before implant with living testosterone-producing
Leydig cells from a donor. The seeded scaffold is cultured in the laboratory to
get support tissues growing, and is then implanted in the scrotum. The polymer
eventually degrades, leaving a prosthetic that feels normal and with cells that
produce testosterone.