U.S. researchers say they have been able to grow new penile tissue in labs and implant it into rabbits to restore their sexual function.

Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina, says the technique could has the potential to be used to treat severe erectile dysfunction in men, Healthday News reported Tuesday.

"We were able to show the tissue was able to integrate and function in the long term, which means we can start planning clinical applications (in humans)," Atala told Healthday. "Our hope is to be able to treat patients with many conditions, including congenital abnormalities of the penis, traumatic injuries, penile cancer and severe cases of erectile dysfunction that don't benefit from drug treatments."

The news service said the result of the study was published in the Nov. 9 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Atala said the implanted penile tissue reconstituted itself when implanted into rabbits, forming new blood vessel structures necessary for erections while nerves from the existing tissue integrated themselves into the new tissue. (c) UPI