This is a summary of findings of over one year of research into the use of adult (not embryonic) stem cells as a treatment for hip osteoarthritis. Adult stem cells or autologous stem cells means stem cells taken from your own body and injected back into your body at the point of injury or pain are being used for many conditions like knee & hip osteoarthritis, bone breaks, and other soft and hard tissue problems. The information presented relates only to hip osteoarthritis and the use of stem cells and the related success rates reported.

The use of stem cells for humans in treating hip osteoarthritis is relatively new. There are four main doctors or “hospitals” that use stem cells for treatment of hip osteoarthritis. They are:

1. Dr. Steenblock in Southern California at the Steenblock Research Institute
2. Dr. Centeno in Colorado at Regenerative Sciences Inc.
3. Dr. Wei in Maryland at the Arthritis and Osteoporosis Center of Maryland
4. The XCell-Center in Dusseldorf Germany

Here are the results.

1. Dr. Steenblock in Southern California at the Steenblock Research Institute

As of 2008 2 hip osteoarthritis patients treated 100% with good results.

Quote from the Steenblock Research Institute on October 15, 2008: “We have had 2 patients with hip osteoarthritis and both got good results – one reported moderate improvement and reduction in pain and the other reported significant improvement.”

2. Dr. Centeno in Colorado at Regenerative Sciences Inc.

Quote from Dr. Centeno via e-mail on January 5, 2010: “I would estimate about 100 + hips.”  … “it {this data} may not get published until next year.”

From Dr. Centeno’s web site on January 5, 2010: “75% of hip patients reported more than 50% relief and 88% of them reported more than 75% relief”

Quote from Dr. Centeno’s office via e-mail on January 12, 2010: “Excel, Stenblock, and Wei use a bone marrow derived, nucleated cell concentrate, out of which 1 in 50,000-500,000 is a stem cell capable of orthopedic tissue repair (mesenchymal stem cell).  Centeno uses culture expanded mesenchymal stem cells.

Insertion of cells makes a big difference.  Injection into the hip requires imaging guidance or the chance the cells will be not be placed in the hip is significant.”

Centeno et al is the only group who has published data on hip patients:

Imaging case report here:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16886034?itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum&ordinalpos=1

Safety data here:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19951252?itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum&ordinalpos=1

3. Dr. Wei in Maryland at Arthritis and Osteoporosis Center of Maryland

“Dr. Wei has been using stem cells for treatment of hip OA for several months now, so it is still fairly new. He has done the procedure on about 10 patients with overall good results. At this point, we are seeing about an 80% success rate. By that, I mean that those patients have decreased pain, and increased mobility and range of motion.”

4. The XCell-Center in Dusseldorf Germany

“Since the start in January 2007, more than 2000 patients have safely undergone our various stem cell treatments.”  XCell-Center has an unknown success rate with hip osteoarthritis.

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“Stem cells and tumor risk
Adult stem cells do not increase tumor risk

One question that is regularly asked in connection with stem cell therapy is whether stem cells increase the risk of cancer. This is a justified concern if a therapy involves embryonic stem cells because these cells actually do divide at an extremely fast rate, and they have already been shown to have cancer-causing potential in animals and humans. However, therapy with embryonic stem cells is strictly prohibited in Germany. At the XCell-Center, we only use the patient’s own stem cells for therapy.
The following applies to therapy with adult stem cells:

Adult stem cells, which are transplanted immediately after their removal and concentration for therapeutic purposes, do not increase the risk of tumor unless the patient already has cancer.
Here are the facts based on the current information status:

Fact 1: No indications of higher tumor formation have been found to exist over the last 40 years in the therapy of leukemia and lymphoma, which also involves the use of adult stem cells.

Fact 2: The behavior of adult stem cells depends to a great extent on their environment. There is no evidence to date that adult stem cells promote tumor formation in the human body.

There is one exception. The growth of an existing tumor can be promoted by the insertion of adult stem cells, and tissue that is damaged by irradiation can harden into cancerous tissue after the injection of adult stem cells.

Fact 3: Adult stem cells only tend to form cancerous stem cells if they are allowed to multiply in a culture dish over a lengthy period of time, because the probability of genetic defect clusters increases in proportion to the number of cell divisions.

Summary: In accordance with the latest scientific findings, the therapy performed at the XCell-Center does not cause tumors because the stem cells are not allowed to multiply for any length of time outside the body. They are transplanted back into the body immediately after purification. The XCell-Center doesn’t treat patients with tumors.”

http://www.xcell-center.com/news/stem-cells-and-tumor-risk.aspx

Summary

It’s clear that stem cell therapy is just beginning, and data collection and reporting on results is poor, but thousands of treatments have been made around the world with overall excellent reported results and a low incidence of reported problems.  This makes stem cell therapy, especially adult/autologous stem cell therapy, something that has the seeming potential to help many people with hip osteoarthritis as well as other problems.  Over 100 reported cases stem cell therapy has been used to treat hip osteoarthritis in the United States with overall good results.

This article is not meant to promote or support any treatment.  It is only to be used for entertainment and informational purposes, not to treat, recommend, or diagnose any medical condition.  Always seek advice from a qualify medical professional.