Cell therapy of urinary incontinence
New Stem Cell Therapy May Help with Stress Urinary Incontinence
UroWeb
(based on BMC: Saving a Penny: Stem Cell Therapy Shows Promise in Repairing Stress Urinary Incontinence – VM).
Stress urinary incontinence can occur when sneezing, coughing, physical exertion or even laughing, and it is associated with weakness of the pelvic floor muscles, which leads to leakage of urine with increased pressure on the bladder.
An article from the journal BMC Medicine (Bum Soo Kim et al., Human amniotic fluid stem cell injection therapy for urethral sphincter regeneration in an animal model – VM) was published in BioMed Central in open access, showing that a new method of using amniotic fluid stem cells helps to restore damaged muscles of the urethral sphincter and prevent urinary incontinence in mice.
Although stress urinary incontinence is more common during and after pregnancy and over the age of 40, every third woman at some age has its symptoms. Men also suffer from stress urinary incontinence, especially after prostate surgery. Stress urinary incontinence can be cured, and in many cases weight loss and coffee consumption, pelvic floor exercises and bladder training can be effective. If these measures do not help, more invasive treatments are required, although they can lead to serious complications associated with surgery.
The use of stem cells to regenerate damaged or weakened muscles is proposed as an alternative to surgical treatment. Amniotic stem cells can be easily obtained and they have low immunogenicity, which reduces the risk of rejection. Researchers from Kyungpook National University, Korea, have studied the ability of stem cells isolated from amniotic fluid during routine amniocentesis to repair damaged urethral sphincter muscles in mice.
James Yoo and Tae Gyun Kwon, who conducted the study, explain: "These stem cells are mesenchymal in nature and they can become myocytes if they are in the appropriate conditions. We have shown that stem cells are able to survive for 7 days inside the body of mice, and although they disappear after 14 days, they are able to cause the restoration of their own muscle fibers of the sphincter."
How exactly stem cells stimulate the body's own cells has not been fully studied. After all, not only are the muscles regenerated, but they are also properly connected to the nerves and increase the pressure necessary to retain urine. Stem cells are already used in the treatment of various diseases, including diabetes mellitus, and since they do not cause an immune response or the formation of tumors, they can give a new development to the therapy of urinary incontinence.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru31.08.2012