Stem Cells Offer Hope for Urinary Incontinence
Related News: Stem Cell ResearchA new study by Ferdinand Frauscher and colleagues at University Hospital, Innsbruck, Austria, found that using a patient’s own stem cells to rebuild feeble bladder-control muscles may provide lasting relief from the embarrassing and inconvenient symptoms of urinary incontinence....
The therapy is a potentially long-lasting one, with patients remaining continent one year after treatment.
For this particular study, the authors removed a cube of muscle tissue, 4 millimetres to a side, from the biceps of 20 women, ranging in age from 36 to 84. Stem cells from this tissue was extracted and then grown in culture for six weeks, producing about 50 million myoblasts – the precursors of muscle fibres.
“If you just inject 100,000 cells you can forget it. If you want to get a strong [bladder] sphincter muscle you must use a really large number of cells,” says Frauscher.
Posted on November 29, 2004 12:42 PM