Embryonic Stem Cells are not Used in This Breakthrough Procedure
According to a January 8th, article in the Venice, Florida Herald Tribune, a new therapy receiving national attention among veterinarians was recently carried out in a Florida veterinarian's clinic. On January 7th, veterinarians Terah Browning, Beth Brown and Howard Rand of the West Coast Veterinary Center in Sarsota, Florida, operated on three animals--two dogs and one horse.
Browning and the other vets attempted this procedure on Browning's dog, named Moose, who is a Bernese Mountain dog. Although he's a young four-year-old, he was already limping with pain because of the severe dysplasia in his hips. It has been difficult to for this 120-pound dog to move without pain.
The surgery, which involved removing fat tissue from Moose's body and injecting harvested stem cells from his fat tissue into his pelvis has shown good results thus far.
The two-year-old show horse, who was operated on because of advanced arthritis and a fractured leg, is also doing well-- as is the other dog who underwent the surgery..
The technique the vets used was to filter the extracted tissue and separate the stem cells from the fat tissue.The vets were the fourth Florida clinic to use a kit developed by an Australian company called Medi-Vet, which enables the doctors to perform this breakthrough surgery.
Although the kit has only been available in the US for six months, successful results have been reported among other veterinarians who have already tried this procedure. Because no Food and Drug Administration regulations exist for animals, veterinarians can do the procedure without FDA approval.
Because the Medi-Vet kit enables the vets to perform the whole surgery in their clinic, instead of having to send the animal's fat to a California clinic, for processing and then having to be returned to the veterinarian clinic, the cost can be kept reasonable--- at about $1,800.
According to the Herald Tribune, the process consists of the vets extracting the stem cells from the animal's fat tissue. Then by using an LED light, they reactivate the cells. The cells are then injected into the animal's affected areas where they soon change into healthy tissue. Last, extra stem cells are injected into the animal's bloodstream. These cells will help to rebuild tissue and to hasten healing.
This Therapy Could Pave the Way for Human Use if it is Proven to be Successful
Although, the procedure has already been used in other countries, some experts warn that there's not been enough research completed or evidence gathered to verify whether or not this type of stem cell therapy will be effective in the long run.
The Herald Tribune reports, however, that two dogs who formerly had severe joint problems and were treated with the therapy in Panama City last October, are now pain-free and are moving around freely.
Should the results continue to be successful, pets could live longer and pain free lives for relatively little expense. The new procedure could also hasten the way for further clinical trials, which if successful, could lead to human use.
Because no embryonic stem cells are required, this new procedure if approved by the FDA could mean hope for thousands of people, many of whom currently need to undergo invasive surgery to replace hips, knees and other joints.
References: The Venice Herald Tribune: Stem cell therapy for animals catches veterinarians' attention--January 8th, 2011.
ABC--News-- channel 7--January 9th,2011.
Anne McNulty - Anne is a freelance writer who lives in Queenstown, Maryland. She has contributed many articles to several Maryland magazines including ...
