What is Regenerative Medicine?

What is Regenerative Medicine?

Regenerative medicine is a treatment that literally regenerates one's own function and tissue.
The ultimate goal is to regenerate one's own tissue rather than suppress a disease with drugs or replace a defect with another implant.
Stem cells are now an essential part of this regenerative medicine.

What are stem cells?

Stem cells are cells that have the ability to self-renew and differentiate. These stem cells can transform into a variety of cell types and have the ability to repair damaged tissues.
However, the number of stem cells decreases with age, and their ability to repair damaged tissues declines.
iPS cells, which became famous when Professor Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University won the Nobel Prize in 2012, are one type of stem cell that has the ability to differentiate into all types of cells, some of which may become cancerous.

Mesenchymal stem cells

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are stem cells that exist in the body and have the ability to differentiate into mesoderm-derived tissues such as bone, cartilage, blood vessels, and cardiac muscle cells. Unlike embryonic stem cells (ES cells), MSCs are derived from one's own cells, so there are no ethical issues. In addition, they are known to have a higher proliferative capacity than iPS cells and other types of cells. They can be harvested from bone marrow, fat, and other tissues, but in the case of bone marrow-derived cells, their proliferative capacity declines with age. Adipose-derived stem cells (adipose stem cells) do not show a decrease in proliferative capacity with age and can be cultured efficiently.
Therefore, adipose-derived stem cells are ideal for regenerative use.

Advantages of Adipose Stem Cells

Adipose stem cells are classified as mesenchymal stem cells, which limits the range of cells that can be transformed compared to stem cells such as iPS cells. However, they are more effective in specific tissues and have an immunomodulatory capacity that iPS cells do not have, resulting in almost any rejection. Since the cells are cultured from one's own cells, they are well established and have a small risk of becoming cancerous.
Considering that iPS cells are still in the research stage, regenerative medicine using adipose stem cells is the best regenerative medicine available today.

Effects of Adipose Stem Cell Transplantation

Various benefits of stem cell injections have been reported. In particular, there are reports of significant improvement in pain in osteoarthritis joints, especially in the knee. Recently, there have also been many reports that fat stem cell transplantation can be expected to be effective for diabetes and kidney disease.
The effectiveness of any drug varies from person to person. However, many drugs only temporarily improve symptoms, whereas stem cells can provide fundamental improvement. Adipose stem cells do not require hospitalization and are produced from one's own fat, making them less stressful on the body. Adipose stem cell transplantation is a cellular regenerative medicine that enhances the body's own healing ability with the power of its own cells, and is expected to be highly effective.