Vaginal delivery presents the possibility of injury for mothers that can lead to “stress urinary incontinence” (SUI), a condition affecting from 4 to 35 percent of women who have had babies via vaginal delivery. Many current treatments, such as physiotherapy and surgery, are not very effective.
Seeking better methods to alleviate SUI, researchers carried out a study in which female laboratory rats modeled with simulated childbirth injuries received injections of mesenchymal stem cells to see if the cells would home to and help to repair the damaged pelvic organs. The study appears as an early e-publication for the journal Cell Transplantation.
The current study extended the results of the researcher's previous studies by demonstrating that the transplanted MSCs homed to the animals' spleens. This suggested that the transplanted cells could have a beneficial impact when they released trophic factors, agents that stimulate differentiation and survival of cells and then engrafted into the smooth muscle of the urethra and vagina, as demonstrated previously in prior studies. The group of female rats that received simulated childbirth injury (vaginal distension) and MSCs showed homing of the MSCs to the urethra and vagina, facilitating the recovery of continence.
The researchers suggested that their work also has potential to develop into a therapy for older women with SUI at a time “remote from delivery. This study provides evidence that mesenchymal stem cell transplantation could favorably impact a side effect of delivery and aging by releasing factors that can influence the urethra and vagina to treat stress urinary incontinence. Further studies are required to confirm that this animal study translates to humans.
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