Transporting Stem Cells Around the World

A press release came out on Jan 29^th from Newcastle University in Great Britain, announcing the discovery that stem cells can be transported at low cost on a bed of seaweed gel which protects them from their hostile environment outside the body. The article did not mention that the stem cells are transported at 60 degrees Fahrenheit on this seaweed matrix, and that they are stable for 5 days in an air-tight environment. Once they arrive at their destination, the cells are extracted and put into culture medium and allowed to grow.

This is a high-technology effort to preserve stems cells so that they can be used on anyone, not just the person from whom they were taken. The technique can be extremely helpful under conditions of severe tissue damage or surgical replacement of body parts. The paper outlining the technique is the last in a series dating to 2011, so the news has been available for some time.[1]^,[2],[3]

This is NOT an office-based technology.

I find it ironic that the very cells which we produce within our own bodies have to be harvested, stored, transported and manipulated for use in someone else’s body, while we are told that to harvest the cells for immediate use in our own bodies from which they came is somehow a less acceptable tool in the medical toolbox.

It seems a great shame to pursue someone else’s stem cells half way across the world, in a GMP manufactured package approved by the FDA as a drug, when these same cells are available at much lower cost and immunologic danger, derived from our own bodies.

Do the various techniques of harvesting require medical training? Yes, of course. Do they require steady hands and an enquiring receptive mind to learn? Yes, of course. Do they require three or four years of residency training in a medical specialty? Maybe not so much.

Click here to learn more about stem cell therapy in general. For an overview of the field, click here.

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