People with urinary incontinence - a condition that affects around 13 per cent of women and five per cent of men in the UK - could one day receive a lab-grown sphincter to improve their control over the release of urine.

Scientists at the University of Michigan have succeeded in creating functional anal sphincters in the lab from human muscle and nerve cells.

They showed that the sphincters - ring-like muscles that constrict body passages - developed their own blood supplies and were effective when implanted in mice.

The advance, which is published in the journal Gastroenterology, could pave the way for a new treatment approach for both faecal and urinary incontinence.

Senior author Dr Khalil Bitar, who has since taken the role of professor of regenerative medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Institute, said: "In essence, we have built a replacement sphincter that we hope can one day benefit human patients.

"This is the first bioengineered sphincter made with both muscle and nerve cells, making it 'pre-wired' for placement in the body."

Dr Bitar said that the ultimate goal would be to harvest a patient's muscle and nerve cells, use them to create a new sphincter and implant it into the patient.

He added that the technique could be used to treat a variety of neuromuscular conditions, "including urinary incontinence".