Stem Cell Science
Regenerative Medicine with Stem Cell Therapy
Regenerative Medicine is defined as those medical therapies that will enable the body to repair, or regenerate damaged tissues. Stem cells are your animal's own repair cells. They are “undifferentiated”, meaning they can evolve into the type of tissue needing repair. They are found in high concentrations in the blood and tissue of the umbilical cord and the placenta at birth. They can also be found in reproductive tissues such as testis and ovaries. Invasive sources are used to extract them from fatty tissue and bone marrow.
Even though stem cell therapy is not new, its potential is far from being fully developed. Bone Marrow transplants have been common for decades in humans. For the past twenty years, stem cells saved from umbilical cords have been used to treat over 80 different diseases.
Research continues at a rapid pace. In university research centers, stem cells are being studied by veterinarians to treat osteoarthritis, eye diseases, immune-mediated and inflammatory diseases, as well as organ disorders. Currently the most common use of stem cells is to treat Osteoarthritis. This includes debilitating hip-dysplasia, which effects thousands of pets each year (13% of the dogs studied had hip dysplasia, mixed breeds from a total of 150,000 studied). Using cells cryopreserved from your pet provides an exact genetic match. This virtually eliminates the risk of rejection when they are infused back into your pet.
While the benefits of stem cell therapy are apparent, obtaining viable cells from an animal has required an additional, invasive surgery. VetiCell has changed this. We offer pain free collection of stem cells from the umbilical cord at the time of birth and extraction of these cells from ovaries or testis that are otherwise discarded as medical waste after a spay or neuter. The goals of our innovative procedures are healthy pets and happy owners.
