Tissue engineering for urinary incontinence applications.

Urinary incontinence affects men and women of all ages, and may be present in nearly half of all elderly women. Current nonpharmacologic, pharmacologic, and surgical therapies often only offer short-term relief. This review focuses on the application of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine to the field of urinary incontinence. The principles of tissue engineering will be discussed as well as some current strategies for applying these principles in developing novel therapies for urinary incontinence.