Exciting Cutting Edge Stem Cell Therapy Advances In Veterinary Regenerative Medicine

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Regenerative veterinary medicine refers to the repair of tissues by using the body’s own intrinsic healing mechanisms.  We activate the body’s cellular, neurological, and blood born healing capacities with side effect free therapies like Class IV therapy laser and acupuncture and the results have been remarkable.  With increasing momentum of stem cell and platelet rich plasma treatment (PRP), we are now taking regenerative medicine to another level.

Stem cells are progenitor cells that can differentiate into any tissue cell type.  By harvesting the patients’ own stem cells, activating them, and injecting them into injured areas, we are able to repair tissues at the cellular level.  In the past, the harvesting of stem cells has required a minor surgical procedure with general anesthesia where fat from the body is sampled and sent off to a lab to have the stem cells extracted and processed into an injectable media.  Since injection of joints, one of the most common uses of stem cell therapy in veterinary medicine, almost always requires sedation, the costs and client perceived invasiveness associated with anesthesia, minor surgery followed by sedation, clients have often been reluctant to consider it for their pet. As a result, although most veterinarians are strong advocates of this branch of medicine, to date we have found it a tough sell for pet owners.

With new technology from PrimoStem, the general anesthesia and surgical portion of stem cell therapy has been taken out of the process.  Their new technology does not require tissue harvest for collection of stem cells, but instead is able to extract and activate stem cells from a simple blood draw.  The blood is sent off to their lab and within 2 business days arrives to the clinic ready for injection.  Thus, your pet can now enjoy the benefits of stem cell therapy for any number of conditions with a simple blood draw, gentle sedation, and injection into damaged areas of the body, all within a 3 day turn around and two outpatient visits.

Stems cell solutions are directly injected into damaged joints and acupuncture points to seek out, differentiate into the given tissue cell type, and repair it. In addition to direct injection, the patient is given an additional intravenous bolus of stem cells to provide systemic regenerative benefits throughout the entire body.

The applications of this type of treatment is poised to go far beyond orthopedic repair.  As I write this article, there are currently studies in process to assess the benefits of this treatment for chronic degenerative disease such as kidney failure, cirrhosis of the liver, and several degenerative neurological conditions that traditional veterinary medicine previously had no answer for.  Conclusions are still pending as the data continues to be collected, but initial results seem very promising.

Dr. Roger Welton is a practicing veterinarian and highly regarded media personality through a number of topics and platforms.  In addition to being passionate about integrative veterinary medicine for which he is a nationally renowned expert, Dr. Welton was also an accomplished college lacrosse player and remains to this day very involved in the sport.  He is president of Maybeck Animal Hospital , runs the successful veterinary/animal health  blogs Web-DVM and Dr. Roger’s Holistic Veterinary Care, and fulfills his passion for lacrosse through his lacrosse and sport blog, The Creator’s Game.

This Post Has 17 Comments

  1. Joe Biondi

    Great article Dr. Welton!

  2. Marcene

    It does not only cater to animal needs but to humans as well. That said, I think there is still room for growth. Foe one, I believe that the rejection or fail rate is quiet high. I could be wrong but I think it must be reduced to a bare minimum before resorting to this kind of treatment.

  3. Obalade Damilola

    wow..this is cutting edge medicine..stem cells can be gotten and activated by a simple blood draw?…that’s amazing..

  4. Femi Logo

    I think I would do my friends and veterinary Doctor a great help by referring them to this site. I do learn one or two things from every article on this site

  5. AJ

    Stem cells are really the cutting edge breakthrough in regenerative medicine today. With still in its infancy, I am expecting it to deliver even greater results for pet health in the future.

  6. Eleonora

    The previous comment said it best. This treatment is still on its baby stage. I think better start small scale first but then again cell grafting is by all means a huge operation. All i am saying is start from the basics before going off with the procedure.

  7. Hank

    As long as it is from your own cell that is okay. The only issue I think rises if there is not enough cell from the source that you get it from a donor? This is where I guess our bodies are doing such a good job that it can be harmful to us. In animals though, I do not know for one they do not even cater to transplants? At least from my point of view.

  8. Roy

    A lot of people are still skeptical about stem cell technology. They feel like it is akin to playing God.

  9. Sarah

    The field of stem cell technology holds a lot of promise. We will be able to cure conditions we never thought could be cured.

  10. Meg W

    The possibilities of regenerative medicine are simply endless. I sure hope it goes mainstream soon.

  11. Julian

    I am in support of regenerative medicine fully. The only issue is that I think it may prove to be too expensive for most pet owners.

  12. Patricia

    It’s sad that most pet owners are still not sold in on the idea of stem cells. It is such a promising area of medicine.

  13. Cynthia

    It’s amazing that stem cell therapy provides treatment for chronic degenerative disease such as kidney failure, cirrhosis of the liver, and several degenerative neurological conditions that traditional veterinary medicine previously had no answer for.

  14. Oliver

    I like the fact that a simple blood draw is all that is needed to do stem cell therapy in pets. The technology has grown greatly!

  15. Xavier

    The repair of tissues by using the body’s own intrinsic healing mechanisms sounds like a bright way to deal with a lot of conditions. More people should be using this technique for a lot of pet conditions.

  16. Daphne

    With such advanced techniques for curing pets, the future sure looks bright. I wonder how much a stem cell therapy session could cost though.

  17. Benard

    Stem cell therapy is a new and exciting field of medicine with a lot of promise. Thanks for the detailed and technical look into how it works 🙂

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