StemCell Therapy

Fat vs. Bone Marrow Stem Cells: A Clinicians Perspective

This week I treated a patient with adipose SVF stem cells to augment a low stem cell yield from bone marrow. I dont do this often, as the quality of fat stem cells for orthopedic applications like arthritis is much less. We do use fat for an occasional structural graft in various procedures. Today I wanted to give you a clinicians eye view of the harvest procedures for both stem cell types that you wont see elsewhere, so let Fat vs Bone Marrow Stem Cells begin.

In summary, harvesting fat in a mini-liposuction is a violent affair, harvesting stem cells from a bone marrow aspirate is like an advanced blood draw. Let me explain.

In order to get fat through a mini-liposuction you need to first use a scalpel to open a small incision in the skin. This isnt at all required for a bone marrow aspiration as the needle is just inserted into the skin like any other needle. In the liposuction, the whole goal is disrupting large amounts of normal tissue. In fact, the stem cells live around the blood vessels, so you have to chew up as many blood vessels in the fat as possible to get a good stem cell yield. This involves placing a small wand like device under the skin and into the fat and moving it back and forth (through much resistance) to break apart large sections of tissue. The bone marrow aspiration simply involves directing the needle under the x-ray to the desired area of bone. The needle is then turned back and forth a few times to enter the bone (which is like hard plastic instead of cement). At this point in the liposuction the doctor must continue to break up large swaths of tissue with suction, sucking the broken tissue and blood vessels into a syringe. On the other hand, in the bone marrow aspiration the doctor simply draws the bone marrow aspirate (which looks like blood) into the syringe like a common blood draw.

The complication rates for these two procedures tell the rest of the story. Mini-liposuction procedures have surgical style complication rates of 3-10%, while bone marrow aspiration complication rates are so rare that only a handful occurred in more than 20,000 procedures in one U.K. registry. The upshot? It always makes me chuckle (in a bad way) when I hear fat stem cell advocates claim that a bone marrow aspiration procedure is so invasive. Youhavent seen invasive until youve seen a lipo-suction!

Disclaimer: Like all medical procedures, Regenexx Procedures have a success & failure rate. Not all patients will experience the same results.

If you liked this post, you may really enjoy this book by the same author - Dr. Chris Centeno

Written by Regenexx Founder, Dr. Chris Centeno, this 150 page book explains the Regenexx approach to patients and orthopedic conditions. Whether youre are an existing patient or simply interested in the human body and how everything in the body ties together, you will enjoy exploring this book in-depth. With hyperlinks to more detailed information, related studies and commentary, this book condenses a huge amount of data and resources into an enjoyable and entertaining read.

Chris Centeno, M.D. is a specialist in regenerative medicine and the new field of Interventional Orthopedics. Centeno pioneered orthopedic stem cell procedures in 2005 and is responsible for a large amount of the published research on stem cell use for orthopedic applications. Centeno regularly lectures on regenerative medicine and has spoken twice at the Vatican Stem Cell Conference.

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Fat vs. Bone Marrow Stem Cells: A Clinicians Perspective

This entry was posted on August 4, 2016 at 9:41 am and is filed under Fat Stem Cells. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |