Better Late Than Never to Stem Cell Party

It took the United States of America 15 years to come to the party, but like they say in a song…Nobody Does it Better….

Regen Medical PC (regenmedicalpc.com): A brand new facility based in New York has put together the most exciting and elegant adult stem cell treatment protocol in the world.  They specialize in the use of autologous stem cells and summarize their procedure as follows:

The ReGen medical staff is concentrated on using what we call “autologous”, your own cells, in our treatments. In a simple and painless procedure, about 2 ounces of fat is taken from the abdominal area and placed in a sterile container. The tissue is then walked down the hallway to the IntelliCell processing facility where your cells, including adult stem cells, are processed by the proprietary and patented IntelliCell process. All of IntelliCell’s methods follow strict quality guidelines under by what are known as cGTP (Good Tissue Practices) in accordance with FDA guidelines.

The cells are returned to your physician in about 1 hour where he or she can begin your treatment. To date, patients have received treatment for osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, medical aesthetics for fine lines and wrinkles, sports medicine injuries, and more. A treatment consists of an IV delivery of the cells mixed with sterile saline in a 20 minute procedure. Depending on the injury, some cells may also be injected the local area such as around the knee for example.

A more detailed synopsis of their cell harvesting and preparation program appears in this PDF file:

RegenVascularFractionprocedure

The cell preparation procedure is so elegant and simple, yet includes all the currently known  elements needed for success. They call their cellular product harvested from the patient the “vascular fraction”, or “stromal vascular fraction”, meaning what is left over after separating away the fat cells from the 60 cc of fatty tissue harvested from the patient. Vascular Fraction Cells (VFC) are also called adipose derived stem cells (ADSC). These are some of the things they do right:

1. Autologous tissue and cells are used [the patient’s own bodily tissue and cells]. This eliminates all immunological issues of rejection or need for immunosuppressive drugs, eliminates risks of contamination with viruses, eliminates need for tissue matching or blood group matching.

2. Fast preparation for immediate patient treatment: They report that they can complete the processing of the stem cells in 1 hour, so that the patient can have the treatment same day. The patient receives very fresh cellular products, with little time for degradation to occur. Nothing better than fresh preps!!

3. Adipose Tissue is the source: Fatty tissue, generally obtained from the abdomen, contains 400 times more stem cells than peripheral blood of the same quantity. If you want a lot of stem cells, and you do need a high number to achieve a therapeutic result, then fatty tissue is where to go get some in high numbers. Their minimum number of cells used appears to be 100 million stem cells.

4. A “soup” of cells including cytokines and growth factors is used for therapy. We know that endothelial cells have been shown to work in harmony with stem cells to help grow them in large numbers. Endothelial cells are included. We also know that cytokines and unknown growth factors help in therapy, which , in other types of treatment centers, is why a soup of fetal tissue is so effective in therapy. Cytokines and growth factors are included. Many other beneficial cells are also included:

Vascular Fraction Cellular Composition

Adult autologous stem cells (Mesenchymal)
Endothelial Cells
Fibroblasts
Growth Factors
Pericytes
Pre­adipocytes cells
Smooth muscle cells

Blood Cells from the capillaries supply including:

B&T cells
Erythrocytes
Hematopoietic stem cells
Endothelial progenitor cells Macrophages
Mast Cells
Monocytes
Natural killer (NK) cells

5. Ultrasound, rather than enzymes or other preparations, is used to separate the fat cells from the cells used for treatment.

6. Best Documentation: Their procedures are clearly described on their website better than any other treatment center.

While only a few diseases are treated at this time [namely osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, medical aesthetics for fine lines and wrinkles, sports medicine injuries], there is no doubt that additional diseases will be brought online in the near future. Moreover, this will not be the only treatment center of its kind in the USA; more treatment centers are sure to be opened up as this model is adopted by other physicians.

So happy, USA, that you could join the rest of the world in helping to develop this new medicine–Adult stem cell patient specific treatment!!!