Treatment of Degenerative Disc Disease by Bone Marrow Stem Cells
Degenerative disc disease is a major problem, causing billions of dollars in lost work and medication. Patents such as # 6,723,335 cover the use of stem cell injection into the nucleus pulposus of the disc in order to stimulate regeneration. In a recent paper (Yang et al. Mesenchymal Stem Cells Arrest Intervertebral Disc Degeneration Through Chondrocytic Differentiation and Stimulation of Endogenous Cells. Mol Ther 2009 Jul 7) the use of bone marrow stem cell injection into degenerating discs was assessed.
The stem cells used were bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells that were autologous to the recipient. Disc degeneration was induced by making a holein the annulus.
After treatment with GFP-mesenchymal stem cells, regeneration of the pulposus was observed based on increased disc space, upregulation of genes encoding for proteoglycans as well as other extracellular matrix components. It was demonstrated that the mesenchymal stem cells differentiated into chondrocyte-like cells, but perhaps more interestingly, the progenitor cells of the nucleus pulposus, called notochordal cells, entered cell cycle and generated extracellualar matrix, thus contributing to the repair process.
These data are interesting because the support what we at StemCellPatents.com are seeing as a recurrent theme, which is that stem cells do not necessarily have to differentiate into new tissue to mediate therapeutic effects, but can do this in many cases simply by producting growth factors that activate resident stem cells. This appears to be the case in critical limb ischemia, where administration of bone marrow stem cells seems to work better in patients that respond to the intramuscular injection by mobilization of bone marrow resident cells.
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shonna said...
Hello my name is Shonna Schindler.I have this desease and then some. I had surgery two different times. Ive had two of them 12 weeks appart.They havent helped now I take alot of pain medicines and some tims cant get out of bed because im to sore.My doctors are very good and i thank them for every thing I am only 40 years old and I feel 80 most days of the week. If you have this disease you really should look into all options.I live in North Carolina the Doctor I have is great and very nice .They are in Wilmington North Carolina 2800 Ashton drive suite 200 Doctor Meilin is his name and his PA is Shune Hensler they are very kind and did what they could for me and are still helping me Find doctors that I still need.Here is there number just incase you would like to call they are good people and care about the peopl they teart 910 799 2262. Give them a call. People who have this disease Ihope you get the help you need it is not easy but hang in there.
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Chrissy said...
I needed to know if I was too young to have DDD or not.
I found all my answers, plus some in a book written by Dr.Richard Busch III called, Surgery Not Included.
It has been my latest addiction to research if surgery is needed. Of course every situation can be different, but if you are looking for solutions, check out this book you will enjoy and learn a lot.