Stem cells can cure urinary leakage
Published: May 22, 2006
Doctors say they were able to cure urinary incontinence in the vast majority of patients who were treated with injections of their own stem cells.
The finding, which was presented Sunday, is the latest accomplishment in a promising area of research: using adult stem cells derived from patients’ own muscle tissue to treat a troubling condition that affects more than 15 million Americans.
The researchers described the treatment as a cure, meaning the patients did not need to wear pads after they were treated.
“It’s highly effective, and it’s much more effective than we previously thought,” said lead author Hannes Strasser. “If somebody had told me it would have worked so well four years ago, I would not have believed it.”
Some of the first patients to undergo the technique remained continent four years after the treatment, said Strasser, an associate professor of urology at the Medical University of Innsbruck, in Austria.
The results presented Sunday involved 186 men and women ages 36 to 85. The study involved about twice as many women as men.
One year after the treatment, 153 of all of those treated did not need to wear pads, Strasser said.
In addition to curing the incontinence, the patients also had a dramatically improved quality of life, he said.
There were no side effects, although a later patient, one of 270 who now have undergone the therapy, suffered a perforation of the urethra during the treatment.
The research was presented at the American Urological Association annual meeting in Atlanta.
“It’s a great idea,” said Elliott Silbar, a urologist with Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center who attended the presentation. “They are trying to replace healthy cells into an area with unhealthy tissue. Theoretically, it makes a lot of sense.”
What’s still needed, Silbar said, are studies involving head-to-head comparisons between the adult stem cell treatment and other types of injectable urinary incontinence treatments.
One potential advantage to the stem cell treatment is the possibility that it might only need to be done once, compared with the need for re-treatment with other injectable therapies, he said.
Strasser said the stem cell treatment costs about $16,000.
The treatment involves harvesting muscle cells taken as biopsy from the patient’s upper arm. Those cells are grown in a laboratory for seven weeks, and a small amount of collagen is mixed in.
“What’s nice is they are using the patient’s own cells,” said Silbar, who was not a part of the study. “You are not going to have any problem with rejection or diseases. It’s totally biocompatible.”
What is not known is whether the new cells become functioning muscle, as is theorized, or whether the injections just are providing bulk, as is the case with other treatments, Silbar said.
The treatment did not involve the use of embryonic stem cells, which generally are derived from 5-day-old embryos.
The research has created a buzz at the meeting, said Michael Guralnick, an assistant professor of urology at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
“It almost sounds too good to be true,” said Guralnick, who also attended the presentation.
Guralnick said the treatment still needs to be subjected to more rigorous scientific testing. And, he said, it’s likely to be a few years before it is available in the United States.
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