Regenerative Medicine as a New Promising Approach in the Treatment of Interstitial Cystitis

Mormone E, Capone L, Formisano P and Cisternino A

Published on: 2022-08-10

Abstract

Painful bladder and other lower urinary tract symptoms characterize some chronic diseases that greatly affect the patient's quality of life and expectancy. Among these, the interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) is a multifactorial chronic disease with unclear etiology, characterized by bladder-related pelvic pain and urothelium dysfunction. Impairment of immunological processes has been suggested. The histopathological features of IC include ulcerations of the mucosa, denuded urothelium, edema and increased detection of mast cells and other inflammatory cells. Careful selection of the patient based upon the histopathological findings will be very important for therapeutic approach. Although various therapeutic approaches have been attempted against IC/BPS, no efficient therapy has been discovered yet. Considering the recent advances in the field of regenerative medicine, including urology, we focused our attention on novel bladder regeneration approaches based on Stem Cells (SCs) and platelet-rich plasma (PRP). Thus, this review provides a brief description of clinical evolution, endoscopic and histopathological features of IC/BPS with special interest into role played by nitric oxide (NO), as well as an overview of SCs and PRP sources for urologic regenerative medicine, with a special focus on ongoing clinical trials in IC/BPS.