Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) significantly diminishes the quality of patients' lives. Currently available surgical and nonsurgical therapies remain far from ideal. At present advancements in cellular technologies have stirred growing interest in the use of autologous cell treatments aimed to regain urinary control.
To conduct a review of the literature and analyze preclinical and clinical studies dedicated to various cell therapies for SUI, assessing their effectiveness, safety, and future prospects.
A systematic literature search in PubMed was conducted using the following key terms: "stem," "cell," "stress," "urinary," and "incontinence." A total of 32 preclinical studies and 15 clinical studies published between 1946 and December 2014 were included in the review.
Most preclinical trials have used muscle-derived stem cells (MDSCs) and adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs). Yet, at present, the application of other types of cells, such as human amniotic fluid stem muscle-derived progenitor cells (hAFSCs), and bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (BMSCs), is becoming more extensive. While the evidence shows that these therapies are effective and safe, further work is required to standardize surgical techniques, as well as to identify indications for their use, doses and number of doses.
Future research will have to focus on clinical applications of cell therapies; namely, it will have to determine indications for their use, doses of cells, optimal surgical techniques and methods, attractive cell sources, as well as to develop clinically relevant animal models and make inroads into understanding the mechanisms of SUI improvement by cell therapies.
Journal of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. 2017 May 08 [Epub ahead of print]
Andrey Vinarov, Anthony Atala, James Yoo, Roman Slusarenco, Marat Zhumataev, Alexey Zhito, Denis Butnaru
Research Institute for Uronephrology and Reproductive Health, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russian Federation., Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA., Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA., Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russian Federation., Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russian Federation.