Urine-Derived Stem Cells for Regenerative Medicine: Basic Biology, Applications, and Challenges

Regenerative medicine based on stem cell research has the potential to provide advanced health care for human beings. Recent studies demonstrate that stem cells in human urine can serve as an excellent source of graft cells for regenerative therapy, mainly due to simple, low-cost, and noninvasive cell isolation. These cells, termed human urine-derived stem cells (USCs), are highly expandable and can differentiate into various cell lineages. They share many biological properties with mesenchymal stem cells, such as potent paracrine effects and immunomodulation ability. The advantage of USCs has motivated researchers to explore their applications in regenerative medicine, including genitourinary regeneration, musculoskeletal repair, skin wound healing, and disease treatment. Although USCs have showed many positive outcomes in preclinical studies, and although the possible applications of USCs for animal therapy have been reported, many issues need to be addressed before clinical translation. This article provides a comprehensive review of USC biology and recent advances in their application for tissue regeneration. Challenges in the clinical translation of USC-based therapy are also discussed. Impact statement Recently, stem cells isolated from urine, referred to as urine-derived stem cells (USCs), have gained much interest in the field of regenerative medicine. Many advantages of human USCs have been found for cell-based therapy: (i) the cell isolation procedure is simple and low cost; (ii) they have remarkable proliferation ability, multidifferentiation potential, and paracrine effects; and (iii) they facilitate tissue regeneration in many animal models. With the hope to facilitate the development of USC-based therapy, we describe the current understanding of USC biology, summarize recent advances in their applications, and discuss future challenges in clinical translation.