Cell Transplants May Improve Severe Urinary Incontinence

According to an article in the Science Daily on a new study, those suffering from urethral sphincter muscle deficiency and resulting incontinence may eventually find relief through muscle cell transplants.

Estimates are that up to 70 million people worldwide may be suffering from severe urinary incontinence. A major cause of urinary incontinence is a deficiency of the urethral sphincter muscle, often associated with trauma during childbirth, resulting from prostate surgery, or due to aging.

Researchers have now discovered that when skeletal myoblasts - progenitor muscle cells with the potential to develop into muscle fiber - were transplanted into female rats suffering from urethral sphincter deficiency, the transplanted muscle cells helped increase urethral pressure, improving incontinence.

"Self-renewing progenitor muscle cells can be cultivated in vitro," said Christophe Praud, PhD, of INSERM's Institut de Myologie, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris and lead author. "When grafted into normal striated skeletal muscle they fuse with host muscle fibers where they can form mosaic fibers or regenerate new fibers."