Research and Result

• Each year, thousands of clinical studies take place on stem cell research.laboratory image by Alhazm Salemi from Fotolia.com
  
  For more than 15 years, Christian Drapeau, MSc, has been researching nutrition's effects on adult stem cells. In his book "Cracking the Stem Cell Code," he points out that from 2006 to 2009, more than 50,000 scientific studies on stem cells were published in the National Institutes of Health medical library. As yet, embryonic stem cell research has yielded few positive results. But adult (or somatic) stem cell treatments, in which the patient himself is the source of the cells, has progressed rapidly and shows promise.
  
  

Tissue Engineering

• According to the November-December 2008 "Spine," clinical research shows adult stem cells can divide and renew themselves into different specialized cells, which in turn graft themselves into tissue that may need regenerating. This is the body repairing itself. Researchers hope to manipulate these stem cells to make them adapt to rebuilding intervertebral discs. This could lead to repairing compromised discs and reduce back and neck problems.
  
  

Regenerative Stem Cell Therapy

• According to the March 2008 "Journal of Neurosurgery," "Regenerative medicine and stem cells hold great promise for intervertebral disc (IVD) disease." Though there are still challenges, researchers are making rapid advances. They recently discovered that neuroprogenitor cells reside even within degenerated discs, which means there is living tissue that possibly can be stimulated to grow new disc cells. Researchers hope to manipulate these stem cells in order to make them adapt to rebuilding IVD discs.
  
  

Forming Bone and Cartilage

• The November 1, 2007 "Spine" reported the results of research by Makarand Risbud, PhD. and Irving Shapiro, PhD, at Jefferson Medical College. From discarded disc tissue, they isolated stem cells and tested them to ascertain whether they could proliferate. They discovered that these cells could form bone, cartilage and fat. "It may be possible to repair the ravages of degenerative disc disease without undergoing invasive surgical procedures," Dr. Risbud concluded.
  
  

Treatment Methods

• Procedures can vary. At the XCell-Center at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine during a bone-marrow aspirate, a practitioner numbs the hip, then extracts about 150 to 200 ml of bone marrow using a needle---this is usually painless. She then conducts lab tests, isolates the mesenchymal stem cells and multiplies them many times over. This concentration is then administered into the body by intravenous injection, lumbar puncture, direct injection into the target area or implantation. Some clinics use MRIs and X-rays to pinpoint the best spots.
  
  

Availability of Clinics

• Since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not yet granted overall approval for stem-cell therapy, there are few doctors and clinics using these methods in this country. This is also true in Canada and some European countries. If you are considering going abroad for therapy, make sure you check out the clinics carefully with regard to their expertise, cost, medical personnel, history and procedures offered. You will find there are no guarantees and many disclaimers. Costs can vary from a few thousand dollars to more than $40,000.