[Cell therapy for urethral sphincter incompetence by muscle precursor cell autograft]

This article reviews cell therapy for muscle diseases and describes the development of a treatment for urethral sphincter insufficiency by muscle precursor cell (MPC) autograft. These studies were conducted in several successive steps, comprising: 1) comparative study of the cellular mechanisms of regeneration of skeletal striated muscle and urethral striated sphincter and development of a method of extraction of MPC; 2) creation of an animal model of sphincter injury reproducing chronic denervation lesions and fibrosis responsible for sphincter insufficiency in human; 3) study of the biology of intrasphincteric transplantation of MPC extracted from peripheral muscle, taking into account the interactions between these cells and the peripheral nervous system.