The use of autologous skeletal muscle-derived cells as a sling in the treatment of induced stress urinary incontinence, an experimental study

Introduction & hypothesisThis is an experimental pre-clinical study testing for the applicability of autologous skeletal muscle derived cells as a seeded sling for the treatment of SUI in the canine model Methods10 Mongrel dogs: In 4, skeletal muscle biopsy was harvested from Biceps Femoris. 1 month later, incontinence was induced in 8 dogs through surgical disruption of the pubourethral ligaments. Muscle biopsy was incubated in DMEM medium and after expansion for 8 weeks, MDCs were collected. PGA scaffold was immersed in culture medium, coated with matrigel and cells were seeded. The sling was placed suburethrally in 8 dogs; 2 of which were cell-seeded and 4 had the scaffold only. Urethral pressure (UP) measurement was done at baseline and 2 weeks alter insertion of the sling. The urethra with its surrounding was harvested 4 weeks after sling insertion for histopathology. 2 dogs were considered as control, in which no urethrolysis or insertion of slings were carried out ResultsUP show increase of maximum urethral pressure during static measurement in all dogs with a scaffold inserted. The increase ranged from 5-40 cmH20 (Median 23 cmH20) Histopathology shows significant periurethral proliferation of skeletal muscles in 4 dogs with cell-seeded scaffold, as demonstrated by Desmin. This was maximum in dogs # 1& 2. This was not the case in the 4 dogs that had PGA sling only. ConclusionThe use of skeletal muscle -seeded PGA scaffold is a practical technique with preserved integrity of histological differentiation in canine model at short term. Brief SummaryAutologous Skeletal muscle-derived cells could be propagated in vitro and seeded to PGS scaffolds and used as slings