A very common condition, particularly among older women, ‘pelvic organ prolapse’ occurs when the pelvic floor muscles’ getting weaker or damaged, with no longer being able to support the pelvic organs.
With over 50 percent women affected with the disorder after childbirth; it is unfortunate that many women don’t seek help from their doctor! Thus, although the actual number of women affected by prolapse is unknown, around one in ten women have surgery and one third of these women need to undergo repeated operations for correcting the problem.
In a bid to find a solution to this, researchers have come up with a new way of identifying probable stem cells in the women’s womb-linings. The researchers have successfully identified two markers — CD146 and PDGF-Rß - which can be used for isolating mesenchymal stem-like cells (MSC) from endometrial tissue.
For making this finding, the scientists used a high speed cell sorting machine called the fluorescence activated cell sorting, or FACS. Amazingly, it was only 1.5 percent of the endometrial cells that were sorted be the new method expressed both the markers and.
The finding thus opens new horizons in tissue engineering applications - like building up prolapsed pelvic floors-repairing natural tissue - by using the stem cells, and perhaps would also reduce the number of cases with the disorder in a near future.
