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Glendale Adventist Medical Center
1509 Wilson Terrace
Glendale, CA 91206
Ph: (818) 409-8000






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I heard there are attempts to make a ready-to-use stem cell repair kit for injuries -- even things like tennis elbow (which I suffer from). Is this true? How do they do it?

When the body fails to heal tennis elbow (also known as epicondylitis or tendinitis), a condition referred to as tendinosis can develop. Tendinosis follows the body's attempt (and failure) to organize a healing response. Instead of making new, healthy tendon cells to replace the damaged cells, the tendon tissue becomes thick with disorganized fibers. The already damaged tendon, now further weakened, fails to heal and may even go on to tear even more. An injection of stem cells might help with tendinosis. But this treatment has not been studied enough to allow for everyday use -- yet. Scientists have figured out a way to harvest stem cells from fat, skin, tendon, and muscle then take it to the lab where they can multiply the sample and grow more cells. When there are enough cells to do the repair job needed, they are injected into the damaged area (e.g., tendon). That sounds simple enough but in fact, there are major barriers to the process. For example, it takes time to generate more tissue in a lab setting. The lab has to have expensive, specialized equipment to do this type of work. Meanwhile, the injured athlete or other patient is waiting and the window of opportunity for healing is getting smaller and smaller. Transporting the cells comes with a lot of potential problems. No one is quite sure how well the cells travel from lab to patient. Questions have been asked about the need to freeze the cells in order to keep them preserved for use. If they could be frozen ahead of time and ready at a moment's notice, the donor cells could be used right away at the time of injury. Pharmaceutical research and development is focused on finding a way to provide off-the-shelf (ready-to-use) sources of stem cells to avoid the time and expense of harvesting and expanding cells retrieved from the injured athlete (or patient). The market is still a few years away from seeing this as a reality.

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