Stem cell therapies are one of the most important topics on which hope is built for the treatment of many chronic diseases and scientists study very hard. Because of both ethical concerns and unpredictable potentials for side effects, stem cell therapies have not yet been fully introduced into clinical use. In the patient handbook published by the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), they expressed concern about stem cell therapies becoming a commercial meta worldwide. Because the vast majority of stem cell therapies evaluated within the scope of regenerative medicine are new and experimental. At this stage, it is still highly doubtful whether they treat diseases or not. It is of great benefit for patients to be aware of this when demanding stem cell therapy. However, considering the last 20 years, it is obvious that most of the in vitro tissue and in vivo animal studies have achieved positive and satisfactory results. Human-based clinical studies have been initiated for this purpose and the results are eagerly and enthusiastically expected by the scientific community. Nevertheless, all these processes are progressing very slowly and there will unfortunately be no time for the majority of our current patients to wait for the study data to mature. In this case, we think that there is a need for some practical stem cell therapy approaches that will not compromise patient health, not abuse the patient ethically, and will yield positive results.

The prevalence of ED in men aged 40 to 70 years is approximately 50%. About 15% of men suffering from ED unfortunately do not respond to first-line and second-line therapies. In other words, one group of patients cannot obtain an erection of adequate quality to allow sexual intercourse despite the medications in both oral and injection forms. Only one option is left for patients with such condition, which is penile implant surgery. Although current penile implants provide an erection very close to physiology, a significant proportion of the patients stand aloof from this treatment modality. Or some uncontrolled chronic diseases constitute an important obstacle for the individual to undergo such an operation. Can regenerative and restorative stem cell therapies for the penis be an alternative in this case?  It is obvious that the forthcoming years will bring about important developments. In fact, stem cell therapies have already been introduced into clinic use for the treatment of ED in some centers in the last few years and a limited number of published studies have shown that they may have positive effects. In summary, although there are many unknown and unclear issues, stem cell therapies are an extremely new and promising theurapeutic approach for the treatment of erectile dysfunction.