There are many chronic disease today that we as physicians have great difficulty treating adequately.
- Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Lupus
- Ankylosing Spondylitis
- Fibromyalgia
- Retinitis Pigmentosa
- Macular Degeneration
- Mixed Connective Tissue Disease
- Psoriasis
- Psoriatic Arthritis
- Diabetes Mellitus type 1
- Berger’s Disease
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Primary Pulmonary Hypertension
- Stroke
- Congestive Heart Failure
Sometimes the treatment is unavoidably toxic and may have significant side effects. Yet for lack of better treatments, they are the only options available to us for these difficult diseases. It is very frustrating for both the physician and patient.
We can treat some of these conditions with local injections of PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma) or CRP (Cytokine Rich Plasma) as described in the Orthobiologic section of this website.
What is really exciting is the use of true autologous (from your own body) stem cell treatments. There is promising research into the use of stem cells for stroke (1), retinitis pigmentosa (2), diabetes (3), and cardiomyopathies (4) to name a few.
Some practitioners are “claiming” to do stem cell treatments, however, the FDA currently prohibits the use of manipulated stem cells. These practitioners are merely doing fat transfers with or without PRP. The FDA even prohibits practitioners from using the term “stem cells” in their labeling and advertising.
PRP, CRP, and stem cells are the future of how we will treat chronic diseases.
(1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qnn0eCXTl5U
(2) Transplantation of Reprogrammed Embryonic Stem Cells Improves Visual Function in a Mouse Model for Retinitis Pigmentosa
Nan-Kai Wang,1,2,3,4 Joaquin Tosi,1 Jennifer Mie Kasanuki,1 Chai Lin Chou,1 Jian Kong,1 Nancy Parmalee,1,5 Katherine J. Wert,1,6 Rando Allikmets,1,7 Chi-Chun Lai,2,3 Chung-Liang Chien,4 Takayuki Nagasaki,1 Chyuan-Sheng Lin,1,7,8 and Stephen H. Tsang1,7,8,9
(3) Jiang W, Shi Y, Zhao D, et al. In vitro derivation of functional insulin-producing cells from human embryonic stem cells. Cell Res 2007; 17:333–344.
– Phillips BW, Hentze H, Rust WL, et al. Directed differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into the pancreatic endocrine lineage. Stem Cells Dev 2007; 16:561–578.
-Shim JH, Kim SE, Woo DH, et al. Directed differentiation of human embryonic stem cells towards a pancreatic cell fate. Diabetologia 2007; 50:1228–1238.
– Tateishi K, He J, Taranova O, et al. Generation of insulin-secreting islet-like clusters from human skin fibroblasts. J Biol Chem 2008; 283:31601–31607.
-Bonner-Weir S, Inada A, Yatoh S, et al. Transdifferentiation of pancreatic ductal cells to endocrine beta-cells. Biochem Soc Trans 2008; 36(Pt 3):353–356.
– Zhou Q, Brown J, Kanarek A, et al. In vivo reprogramming of adult pancreatic exocrine cells to beta-cells. Nature 2008; 455:627–632.
(4) Grauss RW, Winter EM, van Tuyn J, et al. Mesenchymal stem cells from ischemic heart disease patients improve left ventricular function after acute myocardial infarction. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 2007; 293:H2438–H2447.