Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Oct 26, 2020; 12(10): 1080-1096
Published online Oct 26, 2020. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v12.i10.1080
Urine-derived stem/progenitor cells: A focus on their characterization and potential
Perrine Burdeyron, Sébastien Giraud, Thierry Hauet, Clara Steichen
Perrine Burdeyron, Sébastien Giraud, Thierry Hauet, Clara Steichen, INSERM U1082 IRTOMIT, CHU de Poitiers, Poitiers 86021, France
Perrine Burdeyron, Thierry Hauet, Clara Steichen, Faculté de Médecine et Pharmacie, Université de Poitiers, Poitiers 86021, France
Sébastien Giraud, Thierry Hauet, Service de Biochimie, CHU de Poitiers, Poitiers 86021, France
Author contributions: Burdeyron P, Giraud S and Steichen C wrote the paper; Hauet T and Steichen C reviewed the manuscript.
Supported by Institut National de la Santé et la Recherche Mé dicale; Université de Poitiers; CHU de Poitiers; Ré gion Nouvelle Aquitaine; Fondation de l’ Avenir, No. AP-RM-18-006.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Clara Steichen, MSc, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, INSERM U1082 IRTOMIT, CHU de Poitiers, 2 rue de la Milétrie, Poitiers 86021, France. clara.steichen@inserm.fr
Received: May 29, 2020
Peer-review started: May 29, 2020
First decision: June 15, 2020
Revised: June 26, 2020
Accepted: August 24, 2020
Article in press: August 24, 2020
Published online: October 26, 2020
Processing time: 149 Days and 23.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Urine-derived stem cells (USCs) display classical features of mesenchymal stem cells such as differentiation capacity and immunomodulation. Importantly, they are easily isolated from voided urine. Moreover, USCs can be differentiated into many cell types including renal cells. This review will describe the isolation and characterization of USCs and detail their differentiation capacity. Then, we will present the main applications of USCs, from reprogramming into human induced pluripotent stem cells to their use for cell therapy approaches (either directly or via their exosomes). Finally, the remaining barriers and challenges in the field of USC-based regenerative medicine will be discussed.