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| Stem cell therapy helps incontinence |
6-Jul-2007 |
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By Bianca Nogrady
LANCET Stem cell therapy is being hailed as the next leap forward in urogynaecology after a trial of skeletal muscle stem cells as a treatment for stress urinary incontinence reported a 90% success rate.
Researchers treated 42 women with ultrasound-guided injections of autologous myoblasts and fibroblasts, with the aim of promoting muscle regeneration in the rhabdosphincter and reducing urethral atrophy.
The treatment was almost 10 times more effective at restoring continence after 12 months compared with injections of collagen, the authors reported in the Lancet (30 June).
“Myoblasts taken from skeletal muscle have been shown to have the same physiological properties as those from the rhabdosphincter … and have adult tissue stem cell potential,” the authors wrote.
The authors of an accompanying editorial said the study could be seen as “the beginning of a new era in urogynaecology”.
“The urological community has been waiting for these data since 2003, when preliminary observations were reported,” the editorial’s authors wrote.
Urogynaecologist Dr Jennifer King, from the pelvic floor unit at Westmead Hospital in Sydney, said the findings were “hugely exciting”, particularly for the almost 5% of women whose stress incontinence had not responded to other treatments, such as tension-free tapes or surgery.
“Some women we don’t manage well and they often have really quite severe incontinence, so the alternatives in that group have been very poor and that’s who this procedure will ultimately help,” Dr King said.
However, the treatment was complex and therefore likely to be very expensive, she said.
The authors of the study and the editorial also cautioned that longer-term follow-up was needed to confirm ongoing benefit from the treatment.
Lancet 2007; 369: 2139-40 and 2179-86.
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