Stem Cells Archives - Page 3 of 8 - Stemedix | Regenerative Medicine Also Known As Stem Cell Therapy

5 Benefits of Stem Cells and How CBD Can Help with Treatment

by admin | Mar 22, 2019 | Cannabinoid, Stem Cell Research, Stem Cell Therapy

Over 1 million patients worldwide have been treated with adult stem cells and have benefited from them. And nearly 20 000 adult stem cell transplants were performed in the United States in 2014 alone! How is that possible? What are stem cells? What do they do to your body? And why are so many benefiting from them? We take a look at these important questions surrounding the benefits of stem cells, as well as how CBD can help you get the most benefits from stem cells.

What Are Stem Cells?

Stem cells are a very special kind of human cells. They are cells of the body and are therefore somatic cells, found in your bone marrow and fat cells. They are a part of your body’s natural repair process. But why are they so special? Well, they have the ability to develop into many different cell types. This can range from anything from muscle, cartilage and even bone! Stem cells can divide and become differentiated, and are therefore used as a therapy called stem cell therapy. Stem cell therapy involves using a patient’s own stem cells to repair damaged tissues. When an organism grows, the stem cells specialize and take on specific functions, including skin, nerves, blood, muscle, and liver.

Because of their magical transformative powers, they have the potential to treat a number of diseases, including diabetes, Parkinson’s and even cancer. They also have the potential to treat a number of serious injuries, from a damaged knee, to even treating spinal cord injury! Eventually, they may even be used to regenerate entire organs, decreasing the need for organ transplants. Now that we know what stem cells are and how they work, let’s have a look at five of their biggest benefits.

1. Avoid Invasive Surgery and Related Risks

One of the biggest benefits of stem cells and using them in stem cell therapy is that it allows patients who would possibly have required heavy surgery to not have any such invasive surgery. Stem cell therapy uses material already in the patient’s body, which makes it minimally invasive and also cuts out the need for an overly stressful, invasive surgical procedure. Most stem cell therapy is performed as an outpatient procedure, i.e. you can just have it done in the doctor’s office! No need for an overnight hospital stay and those ridiculously high associated medical costs.

Your doctor will first conduct a bone marrow aspiration, in which he removes stem cells from an area of the body, such as the hipbone, through a long needle. These cells are then delivered to the area of injury. Once there they work their magic to create healthy new tissue to replace a damaged muscle, tendon, ligament, cartilage or bone. They become healthy new cells that your body desperately needs.

2. Minimal Procedure & Recovery Time

One of the greatest stem cell benefits is the minimal amount of time involved in the whole therapy, from the actual procedure to the recovery time required afterward. Procedures generally last from two to five hours, depending on the type of cell treatment being performed. After the minor procedure, your activity level may be a bit limited for the first week. This is merely to let the stem cell therapy process to work uninterrupted and without any possible inflammation. After just seven days you should be able to return to your normal activity! Your treatment will include some monitoring after the treatment, to ensure everything is working as it should.

3. Can Offer Pain Relief

Stem cell therapy is highly sought out by patients who experience chronic pain. As it should be! Because of stem cells’ ability to restore and regenerate, being used in pain management is a logical step. The use of stem cell therapy is being studied for a number of chronic pain conditions, particularly pain in the knees, hips, elbows, and back. Stem cell therapy can offer pain relief in the way that it reduces the inflammation which causes chronic pain. It also helps to heal regenerative conditions that lead to pain, such as arthritis. Promising results have been found in research into the use of stem cells to reduce arthritis pain. As every patient and their condition is different, long-lasting pain relief can never be guaranteed by any doctor.

4. No Risk of Rejection

When you receive stem cells from a donor, there’s always the risk that your body will reject them. Because the stems are coming from another person’s body, many complications can arise. The most common complication is called graft-versus-host disease. This is when blood cells formed from the donor’s stem cells believe your own cells are foreign and attack them. On the other hand, harvesting stem cells extracted from your own body to generate new cells and tissues means there is no risk of rejection!

5. Potential to Discover New Treatments

Because of the nature of stem cells, the possibilities for treating new diseases and finding new cures is endless. Stem cell therapy research provides great potential for discovering treatments and cures to a variety of diseases. Advanced research is going as far as limbs and organs being grown in a lab from stem cells, which are then used in transplants. With stem cells, scientists are able to test millions of potential drugs and medicine, without the use of animal or human testers.

How Can CBD Help with Stem Cell Treatment?

We’ve seen how amazing stem cells are. Now let’s have a look at how much more amazing they can be when combined with the effects of CBD! According to results from multiple trials, cannabidiol, or CBD, can help increase the number of stem cells growing within the body. CBD has even shown to positively contribute to the movement of the stem cells within the body. They can then do what they do best – help heal the body and reduce pain.

Nearly 20% of those who went through hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) used cannabis. Not only was it used to treat their physical and emotional pain, but it was also used in the hope that it will contribute to the replacement of bone marrow that has been destroyed by cancer. Because both CBD and stem cells have been seen to reduce pain, combined the possibilities for better treatments are endless.

How Can I Experience the Benefits of Stem Cells?

You’ve heard about the many benefits of stem cells. You’ve heard how popular it is. And you’ve heard the vast amount of injuries, diseases, and pain that it can treat. Perhaps it’s about time you had a look at it as a treatment for your condition. Whether you’re looking for an alternative treatment to your sports injury, your multiple sclerosis or your chronic fatigue syndrome, we’re here to help you along the way.

Get in touch with us to see if you are a candidate for Stem Cell Therapy. Also, check out our website shop to see available products.

Treating Spinal Cord Injury with Mesenchymal Stem Cells from Umbilical Cord

by admin | Mar 14, 2019 | Spinal Cord Injury, Stem Cell Research

Traumatic spinal cord injury is a potentially devastating event in which the nerves and nerves cells in the spinal cord are damaged. In the United States, more than a quarter of a million people struggle with the lifelong consequences of traumatic spinal cord injury. The consequences of spinal cord injury vary from person to person, but each person usually must deal with several complications. Many people with spinal cord injury are paralyzed. They are at risk for pressure ulcers, blood clots in the legs, urine and bowel problems, and sexual dysfunction. Despite being paralyzed, as many as two-thirds of patients with spinal cord injury experience chronic pain, which is difficult to treat. Spinal cord injury can also affect how the heart and lungs function.

There are no specific treatments for spinal cord injury. If the injury is treated early, steroids and spine surgery/neurosurgery can help reduce long-term complications. In some cases of incomplete spinal cord injury, physical therapy can help people regain some degree of function. For the most part, treatment is aimed at reducing symptoms rather than curing the injury. Treating the symptoms helps make the disease less of a burden, but is by no means the same as a cure.

Because spinal cord injury has such long-lasting and devastating effects, researchers are actively pursuing ways to heal injured spinal cord nerve cells. One possible way to do this is through the use of stem cells.

Liu and coauthors conducted a clinical trial on 22 patients with spinal cord injury. The doctors collected mesenchymal stem cells from umbilical cord tissue that would normally be discarded as medical waste after delivery. They purified the stem cells and then used them to treat the injured patients. Astoundingly, stem cell treatment was effective in 13 of 22 patients. Patients who achieved benefit from stem cells enjoyed the return of motor function, sensory function, or both. All patients who were treated with stem cells reported less pain, improved sensation, better movement, and a greater ability to provide self-care. Importantly, the treatment did not cause any notable side effects for up to three years after treatment.

These clinical trial results are truly remarkable, but it is important to note that the number of patients treated was small and further testing is needed. Nevertheless, the researchers concluded that treatment with mesenchymal stem cells derived from umbilical cells is safe, and can improve function and quality of life in most patients with spinal cord injury.

Reference: Liu et al. (2013). Clinical analysis of the treatment of spinal cord injury with umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells. Cytotherapy. 2013 Feb;15(2):185-91.

Fighting Against Tissue Injury: Stem Cell Exosomes

by admin | Jan 27, 2019 | Exosomes, Heart Failure, Kidney Disease, Stem Cell Research, Stem Cell Therapy, Stroke, Umbilical Stem Cell

Tissue injury is common to many human diseases. Cirrhosis results in damaged, fibrotic liver tissue. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and related lung diseases cause damage to lung tissue. A heart attack damages heart tissue, just as a stroke damages brain tissue. In some cases, such as minor tissue injury, the damaged tissue can repair itself. Over time, however, tissue damage becomes too great and the organ itself can fail. For example, long-standing cirrhosis can cause liver failure.

One area of active research is to find ways to protect tissue from injury or, if an injury occurs, to help the tissue repair itself before the damage becomes permanent and irreversible. Indeed, tissue repair is one of the main focuses of regenerative medicine. Likewise, one of the most promising approaches in the field of regenerative medicine is stem cell therapy. Researchers are learning that when it comes to protecting against tissue injury and promoting tissue repair, exosomes harvested from stem cells are perhaps the most attractive potential therapeutic.

Why are stem cell exosomes so promising? Exosomes are small packets of molecules that stem cells release to help the cells around them grow and flourish. While one could inject stem cells as a treatment for diseases (and they certainly do work for that purpose) it may be more effective in some cases to inject exosomes directly. So instead of relying on the stem cells to produce exosomes once they are injected into the body, stem cells can create substantial amounts of exosomes in the laboratory. Exosomes with desired properties could be concentrated and safely injected in large quantities, resulting in a potentially more potent treatment for the disease.

Indeed, researchers have shown that extracellular vesicles (exosomes and their cousins, microvesicles) can be collected from stem cells and used to treat a variety of tissue injuries in laboratory animals.

Just a few examples of this research:

Exosomes from umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells were able to accelerate skin damage repair in rats who had suffered skin burns.
Exosomes from the same type of stem cell protected the lungs and reduced lung blood pressure in mice with pulmonary hypertension.
Exosomes from endothelial progenitor cells protected the kidney from damage caused by a lack of blood flow to the organ.

In this growing field of Regenerative Medicine, research is constant and building as new science evolves from stem cell studies. Researchers are closing in on the specific exosomes that may be helpful in treating human diseases caused by tissue injury.

Reference: Zhang et al. (2016). Focus on Extracellular Vesicles: Therapeutic Potential of Stem Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicles. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2016 Feb; 17(2): 174.

Stem Cells Reverse Paralysis Caused by Spinal Cord Injury

by admin | Jan 4, 2019 | Stem Cell Research, Stem Cell Therapy, Studies

Spinal cord injury can be one of the most devastating injuries. Long neurons that extend from the brain down the spinal cord are severed and scarred. In most cases, this damage can never be repaired. If patients survive an injury to the spinal cord, they can be permanently paralyzed. Researchers have attempted to use high-dose steroids and surgery to preserve the spinal cord, but these approaches are either controversial or largely ineffective.

Ideally, one would create an environment in which nerve cells in the spinal cord could regrow and take up their old tasks of sensation and movement. One of the most promising approaches to do just this is stem cell transplantation.

To test this concept, researchers used stem cells derived from human placenta-derived mesenchymal stem cell tissue (not embryonic stem cells) to form neural stem cells in the laboratory. These neural stem cells have the ability to become neuron-like cells, similar to those found in the spinal cord. The researchers then used these stem cells to treat rats that had experimental spinal cord injury. The results were impressive.

Rats treated with neural stem cells regained the partial ability to use their hindlimbs within one week after treatment. By three weeks after treatment, injured rats had regained substantial use of their hindlimbs. The researchers confirmed that this improvement was due to neuron growth by using various specialized tests (e.g. electrophysiology, histopathology). Rats that did not receive stem cells did not regain substantial use of their hindlimbs at any point in the study.

This work is particularly exciting because it shows that stem cells can restore movement to animals who were paralyzed after spinal cord injury. Moreover, the researchers used human stem cells derived from placenta, which suggests that this effect could be useful in human spinal cord injury patients (perhaps even more so than in rats). While additional work is needed, these results offer hope to those who may one day develop severe spinal cord injury.

Reference:

Zhi et al. (2014). Transplantation of placenta-derived mesenchymal stem cell-induced neural stem cells to treat spinal cord injury. Neural Regen Research, 9(24): 2197–2204.

Using Mesenchymal Stem Cells to Treat Cartilage Defects

by admin | Dec 29, 2018 | Mesenchymal Stem Cells, Osteoarthritis, Stem Cell Therapy

Most large joints of the body contain cartilage, a substance that is softer and more flexible than bone. Because of its softness and flexibility, cartilage is well-suited to protect the bones as they move across one another. Unfortunately, this softness and flexibility also makes cartilage prone to injury and erosion. In patients with osteoarthritis, forexample, cartilage breaks down to the point that bone rubs against bone,causing pain and disability. Certain injuries can damage the cartilage (i.e.osteochondral lesion), which can essentially have the same effect.

Once the cartilage of joints has become damaged, there is little that can be done to fix it. Patients may receive steroid injections into the joint to reduce inflammation, and may rely on pain medications to relieve the pain and swelling. Short of joint replacement therapy, no treatments can reverse cartilage damage once it has occurred.

Fortunately, mesenchymal stem cells may soon be able to reverse cartilage defects that arise from osteochondral lesions and osteoarthritis. Wakitani and colleagues took samples of patients’ bone marrow, which contains mesenchymal stem cells. They then used various laboratory techniques to increase the number of stem cells in the sample. Four weekslater, the researchers then reinjected the concentrated stem cells back intothe same patient using their own source of stem cells. The Wakitani groupshowed that stem cell transplantation improved the patient’s clinical symptoms bysix months, a benefit that continued for two years on average. Samples takenfrom the patients 12 months later showed that the damaged cartilage had beenrepaired. In other work, Centeno and co-authors showed that bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stemcells could increase the volume of cartilage, reduce pain, and increase rangeof motion 24 weeks after stem cell transplantation.

Research continues to determine which stem cells are most useful, how many stem cells should be injected, how many injections need to be administered, and how should those stem cells be prepared before they are injected? Nonetheless, certain groups are making great strides in this area. In fact, the recent discovery of human skeletal stem cells promises to accelerate stem cell research into treating disorders of bone and cartilage.

Reference

Schmitt et al. (2012). Application of Stem Cells in Orthopedics. Stem Cells International. 2012: 394962

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