About Stem Cell Therapy – Kansas Regenerative Medicine

In regenerative medicine today, adult stem cells hold the most promise for cell-based therapies. There are two main types of stem cells, adult and embryonic, which require unique means of collection and deployment.

Early research in the field was often associated with the controversial use of embryonic stem cells. Today, the cutting-edge of the science focuses on Mesenchymal stem cells found in an adults blood, bone marrow and fatty deposits. At KRMC we never use embryonic stem cells.

Adipose Stem Cells

Cell therapy around the world is shifting its focus from bone marrow based cells to adipose (fat) derived cells. These cells are easy to obtain and are generally robust. Adipose fat is an abundant and reliable source of stem cells. The best quality adipose cells are derived from the enzymatic digestion of liposuctioned fat which can be performed in a nearly painless, outpatient procedure.

The quality of stem cells deployed appear to be related directly to the clinical success and favorable outcomes of a procedure. Once adipose derived stem cells are deployed into an affected area of a patient body, the cells have the potential to:

Bone Marrow Derived Stem Cells

While Mesenchymal stem cells derived from bone marrow offer the same benefits as Adipose derived stem cells, there are two reasons KRMC does not currently collect stem cells from bone marrow.

A Comparison: Bone Marrow and Adipose

Adult Stem cells are obtained by different methods, each offering a different experience. The two most common methods are the older, bone marrow derived method and the increasingly popular Fat (Adipose) derived method.

Whether adult mesenchymal stem cells come from bone marrow or from fat does not appear to make a difference in clinical results. Some centers claim that bone marrow derived cells are superior to fat derived cells but there is no clinical evidence to substantiate this claim. While there are more studies on bone marrow cells, there is no evidence as to their clinical superiority.

It is important to understand that the word bone in bone marrow is sometimes used to implying that an orthopedic source might be better for treating orthopedic conditions such as cartilage regeneration. In fact, bone marrow is part of the reticulo-endothelial system and happens to be found in the center of bone. All of these types of cells are equally undifferentiated and have the potential to differentiate into mature functional tissues.

For many disease types such as cardiac pathology, adipose derived cells appear to be showing superiority to bone marrow derived cells. This may be related to the well documented qualitative and quantitative attrition in bone marrow stem cell counts related to age and chronic illness (chronic disease causes bone marrow suppression). Such changes in the number of cells over time and the quality of cells dependent on health have not been seen in fat derived stem cells. Fat derived cells are a natural choice for our investigatory work considering their easy and rapid availability in extremely high numbers.

Embryonic Stem Cells

At KRMC, we never use embryonic stem cells. Embryonic (ES) Stem cells are isolated from the inner cell mass of blastocysts of preimplantation-stage embryos. These cells require specific signals to differentiate to the desired cell type. If simply injected directly, they will differentiate into many different types of cells, resulting in a tumor derived from this abnormal pluripotent cell development (a teratoma). The directed differentiation of ES cells and avoidance of transplant rejection are just two of the hurdles that ES cell researchers still face. In addition, Embryonic stem cells are associated with ethical considerations and limitations.

Amniotic stem cells

KRMC does not use amniotic stem cells. Commercially available sources of stem cells, such as amniotic products, are not collected from ones own body. These cells are gamma radiated by manufacturers and are, therefore, not live cells.

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About Stem Cell Therapy - Kansas Regenerative Medicine