Dr. Riordan discussed types of stem cells used in treatments with a focus on adipose and umbilical cord derived stem cells, including their roles in immune system modulation, inflammation reduction and tissue repair:Autoimmune diseases and spinal cord Injury are highlighted. Dr. Riordan is the Founder of the Stem Cell Institute in Panama City, Panama.
November 29, 2012 by
Non-controversial stem sells: rationale for clinical use: Neil Riordan, Ph.D. – (Miami)
November 29, 2012 by
Stem cell therapy for multiple sclerosis: Xenia C.
Xenia C. tells how she can ride her horses again after receiving stem cell therapy for multiple sclerosis (MS) at the Stem Cell Institute in Panama City, Panama. “I have a life now…”
July 30, 2012 by
Why does fat (adipose) stem cell therapy take more than one week?
Intravenously administered adipose-derived stem cells will tend to migrate back to the fresh wound site if it is not given an adequate time to heal. Therefore, it is essential to allow about one week after the mini-liposuction before administering any stem cells intravenously. Otherwise, there is a likelihood that the treatment will not be as effective. Additionally, it takes 5 five days to thoroughly test the adipose cell samples for aerobic and anaerobic bacteria as well as endotoxins.
In order to ensure that no patient receives an infected sample, at least 5 days must transpire before the cells can be confirmed safe and injected back into the patient.
Lastly, this 5-day waiting period enables our scientists to culture a small sample of each patient’s stem cells in the lab to observe how they are likely to proliferate once they are inside the body. If a patient’s cells show low viability, Stem Cell Institute doctors will supplement the treatment with additional cord-derived cells to compensate. The same can be done in cases of low cell yield.
May 26, 2012 by
Fat Stem Cells are not affected by weight or age
Mojallal et al. Aesthetic Plast Surg.
Fat represents a potent source of autologous stem cells. Historically, the majority of research using autologous stem cells involved stem cells collected from the bone marrow. This source is associated with a painful extraction procedure and relatively low concentrations of mesenchymal stem cells. In contract, mini-liposuctions represent a less invasive extraction approach. Additionally, adipose tissue has been shown to contain substantially higher number of mesenchymal stem cells as well as hematopoietic stem cells and endothelial progenitor cells.
The use of fat derived stem cells has grown exponentially in recent years for numerous indications. Perhaps the largest data set for fat derived stem cells is possessed by Dr. Bob Harman from Vet Stem, who has treated a total of more than 10,000 large animals with this procedure. The Cellmedicine clinic has had an excellent track record of success using autologous fat for treatment of multiple sclerosis having treated more than 200 patients.
One of the major limiting factors of stem cell therapy using your own stem cells (autologous) is that the potency and number of stem cells is believed to decrease with age and disease. These studies, however, have been performed primarily from bone marrow sources of stem cells. Any hematologist will tell you that with age the bone marrow becomes drier and possesses less cells. Studies have shown that bone marrow stem cells from patients with diabetes or from obese patients have less activity as compared to age matched controls. There has been some thought that the stem cells in the adipose tissue are protected from age and disease. A current study (Mojallal et al. Influence of Age and Body Mass Index on the Yield and Proliferation Capacity of Adipose-Derived Stem Cells. Aesthetic Plast Surg. 2011 May 26) from the Service de Chirurgie Plastique, Reconstructrice et Esthétique in Lyon France sought to address this. The investigators assessed 42 women who were divided into two groups: age ≤ 40 or >40 and BMI ≤ 25 or >25. Fat tissue was harvested via manual lipoaspiration from the abdominal region. After centrifugation, 100 ml of lipoaspirate was sent to the laboratory for isolation and cultivation of ASCs. The investigators found that average cell yield was 0.380 × 10(6)/ml. Cell yield and proliferation capacity did not show statistically significant correlation to the age and BMI of patients, nor was there a statistically significant difference between cell yield and proliferation capacity between the different groups.
The study looked at some very basic parameters: cell number, viability and proliferative ability. It may be that adipose stem cells may exhibit differences in immune modulatory potential or differentiation potential between donors. This was not assessed. Additionally, the adipose derived cells were not assessed between donors suffering from different conditions. Despite these shortcomings, the data appears to support the hypothesis that adipose derived stem cells may have some advantages as compared to bone marrow stem cells, at least for autologous uses.
April 19, 2012 by
Legendary Texas Football Coach and Stem Cell Recipient Sam Harrell Returns to Coaching
Coach Sam Harrell at Ennis High School
In 2010, the debilitating effects of multiple sclerosis forced Sam Harrell to retire from his position as Head Football Coach at Ennis High School. But after receiving 3 courses of stem cell therapy at the Stem Cell Institute in Panama, Sam is returing to the gridiron once again.
Brownwood Lion Head Coach, Bob Shipley announced that Harrell will be joining the team as quarterback coach.
Sam coached all three of his sons at Ennis High School, most notably his son Graham Harrell. Graham was a standout quarterback at Texas Tech and now plays for the Green Bay Packers.
During his career at Ennis, Harrell pioneered the spread offense that led the team to three Texas state championships.
“I told the kids this morning,” said Coach Shipley when asked about how he addressed the team, “And I didn’t have to explain who Sam Harrell was, they knew. And they just erupted in applause and they were just looking at each other with their jaws dropped open, like they couldn’t believe that Coach Harrell was going to come and be apart of our staff.”
“Sam just really liked the thought of coming and not being the head coach and not being the offensive coordinator, but just coaching the quarterbacks, which is really what his passion is.”
The Stem Cell Institute was founded in 2005 by Neil Riordan PhD and has treated over 1,500 patients to-date. Find out more about stem cell therapy for MS at www.cellmedicine.com
January 31, 2012 by
Fat Stem Cells Turn to Muscle: A Treatment for Muscular Dystrophy?
New research published in the journal Biomaterials by University of California, San Diego researcher Adam Engler suggests fat-derived stem cells that are developed on a stiff surface transform into mature muscle cells. This remarkable discovery could lead to new treatments for muscular dystrophy in the future.
Fat stem cells and bone marrow stem cells were grown on surfaces with different degrees of hardness ranging from very hard bone-like surfaces to very soft brain tissue-like surfaces.
The researchers found that the fat derived stem cells were much more likely (up to fifty times) to exhibit proteins that are essential to the cells becoming muscle tissue.
Yuk Suk Choi, a post-doc team member, says that the fat-derived stem cells seem to proliferate better than bone marrow cells when introduced to the hard surfaces. “They are actively feeling their environment soon, which allows them to interpret the signals from the interaction of cell and environment that guide development,” explained Choi.
Unlike bone marrow stem cells, stem cells from fat fused together to form myotubes. Although this phenomenon has been observed in the past, it has never been observed at such a high degree by Engler in the lab. Myotubes comprise an essential step in muscle formation.
Next, Engler and his team plan to observe how fused cells from fat perform in lab mice which are afflicted with a particular form of muscular dystrophy.
However, Dr. Engler cautioned, “From the perspective of translating this into a clinically viable therapy, we want to know what components of the environment provide the most important cues for these cells.”
