Regenerative medicine uses natural healing processes to heal injured tissue or organs, rather than simply masking symptoms with drugs and procedures. The goal is to restore normal function.
Your body works constantly to regenerate itself. Regenerative medicine provides therapies like PRP and stem cell therapy that speed up and support this process.
Prolotherapy
Prolotherapy is an in-office injection treatment that strengthens ligaments, tendons and joints. It’s a nonsurgical option for people with chronic back pain, neck pain and knee pain, as well as other joint conditions. It is also effective for people with Ehlers Danlos syndrome and alleviates the symptoms of joint hypermobility.
This therapy involves injecting a solution of glucose and other ingredients into the damaged area to stimulate the body’s natural healing processes. This causes fibroblast proliferation, which results in the growth of new ligament and tendon tissue. This tightens the structure of the joint, leading to less pain and mobility.
A trained prolotherapist can assess whether the treatment is working by physical examination. They listen for creaking and other signs that the joint is improving, which is a good indicator that the treatment is working. However, x-rays and MRIs are poor indicators of the effectiveness of prolotherapy.
Stem cell therapy
Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) can grow into many different kinds of cells in your body. They can make blood, skin and other specialized tissues. Adult stem cells, on the other hand, can only give rise to cells that are specific to a certain tissue. These are known as oligopotent or unipotent stem cells.
Scientists can grow stem cells in the lab and then manipulate them to become specialized cells that will repair damage or disease in the body. They can also transplant these specialized cells into patients to replace damaged ones.
Stem cell therapy can help treat a wide range of conditions, including degenerative diseases of the joints and muscles. It can accelerate healing and promote new tissue growth. It can even replace a damaged organ entirely, although this will require much more research. It can also be used to test new medications and treatments before they are given to patients.
Tissue engineering
Regenerative medicine clinic includes approaches to grow new tissues or organs to replace damaged ones. These include tissue engineering, cellular therapies and medical devices and artificial organs. Together they can amplify the body’s natural healing process or take over the function of permanently damaged organs.
Four essential components are usually required to produce functional engineered tissue:
A scaffold, a material in the geometric shape of the tissue to be created. Stem cells, which can differentiate into many different cell types. A vascular system, which carries nutrients to the cells and waste away from them. A way to control cell differentiation, avoiding the formation of undesired tissue types.
One of the most challenging problems with engineered tissue is that it cannot survive without a vascular network. NIBIB funded researchers are working on ways to develop vascular networks that can be implanted into tissue constructs. In addition, a discovery that allows mature differentiated cells to return to their stem cell state could eliminate the need for embryonic stem cells, which have ethical issues.
Medical devices and artificial organs
Using cells, tissues, drugs and synthetic biomaterials, the regenerative medicine approach seeks to restore organs and tissue damaged by disease, injury or congenital problems. This differs from conventional clinical treatments that focus primarily on treating symptoms. The three main approaches are tissue engineering, cellular therapies and medical devices and artificial organs. Combining these techniques can either amplify the body’s natural healing process in areas where it is needed, or replace permanently damaged tissues and organs.
For example, when a patient loses a kidney or lung, doctors usually recommend an organ transplant. However, finding an appropriate donor can be difficult and time-consuming. Regenerative medicine scientists are working on ways to make it easier for your doctor to find the right donor, and to speed up the process.
Other examples of regenerative medicine include connecting severed nerve endings to powered artificial limbs, and using calcium-based scaffolds to grow bone tissue for reconstructive surgery. But regenerative medicine is still in its infancy. It is a field that brings together professionals from biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, robotics and genetics to uncover solutions to humankind’s most challenging health problems.
