Using these cells represents advantages for cell therapy in patients suffering from urinary or anal incontinence with sphincter muscle damage, or for treating small-sized muscle groups, such as in the case of oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy or facioscapulohumeral dystrophy. .
Researchers at the Biodonostia Health Research Institute (Biodonostia HRI) dedicated to regenerative medicine and cell therapy in the scope of muscular regeneration, have patented and published a method for the isolation and expansion of multipotent stem cells obtained from the cremaster muscle.
La investigación, liderada por los Dres. Ander Izeta y Adolfo López de Munáin, de los Grupos de Ingeniería Tisular y Enfermedades Neuromusculares del IIS Biodonostia, en colaboración con investigadores del Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga (IBIMA), IIS Aragón de Zaragoza y del centro tecnológico Idonial de Gijón, acaba de publicarse online en la revista de acceso abierto Scientific Reports, perteneciente al prestigioso grupo de publicaciones Nature, en un artículo cuya primera autora es la Dra. Neia Naldaiz-Gastesi.
The patent, which protects the method for obtaining these cells and their therapeutic uses, was submitted in March 2018 to the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office and has recently earned the qualification of international patent in the member countries of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).
The inventors suggest that the use of multipotent precursor cells (myogenic, vascular and neural) isolated from the cremaster muscle of adult males presents advantages for cell therapy in patients suffering from urinary or anal incontinence with sphincter muscle damage, or for treating small-sized muscle groups, such as in the case of oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy or facioscapulohumeral dystrophy.
The above-mentioned research consortium is currently working on using these cells in a tissue engineering product made by means of 3D bioprinting to treat stress incontinence, a widely prevailing pathology in our society and whose diagnosis is believed to be vastly underestimated, as well as on the isolation of a similar population of precursor cells from the muscles of adult women.
Reference:
Isolation and characterization of myogenic precursor cells from human cremaster muscle
Neia Naldaiz-Gastesi, María Goicoechea, Isabel M-ª Aragón, Virginia Pérez-López, Sandra Fuertes-Alvarez, Bernardo Herrera-Imbroda, Adolfo López de Munain, Resi de Luna-Diaz, Pedro M. Baptista, M. Alejandro Fernández, María Fernanda Lara & Ander Izeta.
