Stem cell science attracts an extraordinary amount of attention due to the insight and possible treatments stem cell biology may offer patients suffering from currently incurable medical conditions. However in reality it remains early days in the development of stem cell based treatments, with the number of clinically proven applications limited to diseases of the blood and immune system and utilising blood forming stem cells from the bone marrow. Despite this, many companies and clinics are already offering to treat a large number of conditions using stem cells. Whilst we have written about this phenomenon before (see
Beware of Dr Google: Make sure you get the full story on stem cells) there is a new growing trend towards marketing some of these treatments as ‘natural’ therapies and promotion of the concept that treatment with you own (autologous) stem cells is normal, natural and completely safe.
Phrases like ‘natural release of adult stem cells’, ‘using your own stem cells’,’patients own stem cells’, ‘adult stem cells are the bodies repair kit’ ‘natural’, ‘safe’, ‘natural healing process’ and the idea that treatment with your own stem cells is distinct from other treatments and the use of pharmaceutical drugs, are used time and again to promote therapies. While seemingly attractive, the reality is that very few stem cell treatments have been proven safe and effective (see our
Patient Handbook for details on how stem cells are currently used) and unfortunately, just because a treatment purports to use your own cells it is not necessarily free of risk.
In a recent
editorial in the journal
Experimental Neurology with additional commentary in the Stanford University blog the
Beaker, Dr Evan Snyder, a well known stem cell scientist from California’s Stanford University, describes the possible dangers of, as he describes it “putting something where it does not belong”. Dr Snyder is writing about a recent paper in which researchers attempted to improve the condition of mice with multiple sclerosis (MS) by transplanting mesenchymal stem cells derived from the mice’s own bone marrow.
Bone marrow contains haematopoietic (blood forming) stem cells which form all of the blood and immune system cell types. Bone marrow also contains a different type of stem cell, mesenchymal stem cells, which in addition to their capacity to differentiate into bone, cartilage, fat and connective tissue have anti-inflammatory and immune-suppressing properties. Mesenchymal stem cells can also be found in several other parts of the body including fat (adipose tissue). Unlike haematopoietic stem cells, there are no current established treatments using mesenchymal stem cells although there is a lot of research into these cells and early clinical trials.
In some of the mice treated in the study with their own mesenchymal stem cells, it was found that following injection into the spinal cord the cells formed masses in the brains where they seemed to play out their natural biology by making connective tissue, such as cartilage. Thankfully, these findings were in mice but it demonstrates the need for comprehensive animal studies to assess any new treatment before it is tried in humans. Unfortunately, this is not always the case with many clinics and companies already offering to treat patients without first testing the proposed treatment in animals.
A case in point was a patient treated in a private clinic in Thailand for serious kidney disease where she was injected directly into her kidneys with stem cells from her own bone marrow resulting in masses forming in the kidneys. The case was reported in the
Journal of the American Society of Nephrology in 2010 where it was found that the patient had not benefited at all from the treatment, and masses of blood vessels and bone marrow had formed at the injection site - another example of the stem cells seeming to play out their natural biology.
Of course, your own stem cells for certain conditions are likely to be very valuable. There are many clinical trials underway in both Australia and overseas using mesenchymal and haematopoietic stem cells that show promise. What is clear however is that just because the cells come from you, the treatments may not be safe. Make sure they have some evidence first!