Tricky Treatment: Autologous Adipose Stem Cell Therapy

The Treatment:

One of the most vital points of investigation is analyzing the treatment that Stemedix offers. If the procedure does not seem legitimate, then you should at the very least be wary of wasting your money and misplacing your trust. Stemedix offers autologous adipose stem cell therapy:

(Picture is a screenshot from Stemedix's site: https://stemedix.com/adult-stem-cell-therapy/)

So what is this treatment? As defined in the "Stem Cell 101" post, "autologous" means that the stem cells come from the patients themselves, instead of from other donors. "Adipose" means that the stem cells are taken from fat.

Stemedix claims on their website that they extract adipose stem cells – through a process called liposuction – from your body, centrifuge the adipose stem cells, add components from centrifuged blood, apply some sort of laser treatment, and then inject the mix back into the body. They do not specify where they re-inject the cells.

This location is important. In a study with rats (1), the majority of stem cells injected through IV ended up in the lungs, which means that the stem cells would be renewing and providing replacements for cells in the lungs. Many of the diseases Stemedix claims to treat, such as Alzheimer's disease and diabetes, do not primarily require repairing in the lungs. Therefore, where stem cells are reintroduced is critical. Even without knowing Stemedix's specific procedures, problems arise because of this.

Another issue has to do with the type of stem cell that is found in fat. Yet another concern is the efficiency of the refining procedures of PRP and laser treatment. All of these problems are described below:

• Injection location: Stemedix offers treatment for neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis (MS). For these diseases, the stem cells would have to reach the central nervous system to help restore the necessary cells such as nerve cells. There is a problem with this. Stem cells would need to pass through a blood-brain barrier and cerebrospinal blood barrier to reach these cells, which is very difficult – as should be expected because they protect the brain and spinal cord (2). While it is possible to allow stem cells to reach nerve cells by boring a hole in the head and injecting there, Stemedix does not seem to offer this as evidenced by one of their videos (a patient with MS did not experience such an extensive procedure with Stemedix).

• Mesenchymal stem cells: Stem cells from fat are very similar to mesenchymal stem cells (3), a type of multipotent stem cell that is in the bone marrow. Remember the limitations in specialization? While some studies have shown evidence that mesenchymal stem cells can differentiate into a wide range of cell types such as nerve cells and heart cells, the results have not been confirmed (4). Mesenchymal stem cells have only been proven to specialize into fat cells, bone cells, and cartilage cells, as shown in the diagram below.

(Picture source: http://www.eurostemcell.org/factsheet/mesenchymal-stem-cells-other-bone-marrow-stem-cells)

• PRP and laser treatment: While PRP (5) and laser treatment (6) have been shown to increase the effectiveness of stem cells, there has not been enough research to define the exact procedures – such as the laser source and frequency. Remember how stem cells are dependent on their environments? These methods need to be researched more because they can really affect stem cell function. This may be a problem for Stemedix, seeing as they have not had any published articles as from a recent search in Web of Science and PubMed.

Overall, the treatment Stemedix offers has its issues. Some of the problems are the result of lack of research, however, which some people might excuse. Because of how tricky adipose stem cell therapy is, I think what is more telling is the way Stemedix presents itself, which we will discuss shortly (as well as the previously mentioned uncertainty with one of their doctors). There are more suspicious activities associated with Stemedix . . .

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What Stemedix really provides:

On closer inspection of Stemedix's offers, in a certain way Stemedix doesn't even provide the treatment. According to testimonials (as also discussed earlier), Stemedix is a consultant company:

Their modus operandi is organization of every step of the treatment to provide a comfortable and smooth experience: they deal with preliminary medical tests, transportation, lodging, in addition to arranging the actual treatment. You can receive the same treatment without working with (and paying) them.

Some of the benefits Stemedix mentions (shown below) from their facility are private rooms, double activation (using both PRP and lasers on the stem cells), antibody filtration protocol, cleanliness, and high standards. Many of these are expected in healthcare for the U.S., so explicitly stating them seems as a strategy for higher consideration.

(Pictures from Stemedix flyer)

These points increasingly raise doubt about the company.

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Sources:
(1) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3190292/
(2) https://www.ipscell.com/2013/07/a-common-sense-no-b-s-guide-to-stem-cells-for-ms/
(3) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18516560
(4) http://www.eurostemcell.org/factsheet/mesenchymal-stem-cells-other-bone-marrow-stem-cells
(5) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3854675/
(6) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2830167/