Stem Cell Therapy to End Back Pain

If you've got spinal disc damage in Vacaville and it continues to progress, there's no doubt that it will trigger neck and back pain. There are traditional methods being used to slow down its progress but with the help of modern technology, it could be resolved soon and it's all thanks to bio-engineered discs.

There are people from all over the world who are affected by intervertebral disc degeneration and it caused their daily functions and quality of life to become disrupted by it.

The common wear and tear that happens to the healthy intervertebral discs can trigger disc degeneration. Once that happens, back or neck pain will come soon after.

However, there are intervertebral disc degeneration treatments available that comes in the form of disc replacement and spinal fusion surgery. But these treatments aren't enough to fully restore the function and mobility of the spine which is why better treatments are being sought out.

Researchers from the Pennsylvania University's Veterinary Medicine School, School of Medicine, and Applied Science and Engineering School have come up with a solution to create bioengineered intervertebral discs using the stem cells of a patient.

How Stem Cells in Vacaville CA Can Help You

Stem cells are known for being 'original cells' wherein they can differentiate or turn into specialized cells depending on what the body needs and which part they are injected on. There are various linked and independent studies that are doing a research on stem cells and how it can help with common orthopedic issues like arthritis, sports injuries, and knee problems.

These Pennsylvania researchers continue to work on bioengineered disc models by starting on lab studies until they were able to progress to large animal studies for the past 15 years.

Professor Robert Mauck, co-senior author, stated that growing large discs in the lab, setting the disc in place, and have the surrounding tissue begin integration is all part of a major phase in their project. Professor Mauck also added that traditional treatments won't actually help restore the discs. Their team have high hopes that in the future, engineered stem cell discs will replace the damage areas and bring back the patient's full range of motion.

SUCCESS IN ANIMAL STUDIES

The researchers started using their discovery with their new discs called Disc-like Angle Ply Structures (DAPS) by testing it on tails of rats which lasted for 5 weeks.

They expect their project to improve the engineered discs even further. A new model called endplate-modified DAPS (eDAPS) was made and tested again on rats that spanned for 20 weeks. The team noted that the improved disc replacement method has integrated with the surrounding tissue much easier and retained its shape better than its predecessor. In addition to that, researchers have found out through MRI scans and mechanical and in-depth tissue analysis that the eDAPS have restored the function and disc structure that matches with the original models in rats.

With the success on their research, the Pennsylvania team moved on to goats in testing their eDAPS where they implanted devices on the test subjects. The reason why goats were chosen for this research is because they share a similar spinal disc dimension with humans. Goats can also stand in a semi-upright position, and the team have agreed that it's crucial for the next step of their research before they can start using it on humans.

OPTIMISTIC RESULTS

The Pennsylvania research group were able to replicate the success in their goat trials. Just like the ones in mice, the eDAPS have successfully integrated with the surrounding tissue. Also, the mechanical function in the replaced discs have performed better than the original cervical discs of the subject.

Dr. Harvey Smith, co-senior author, shares his excitement on how far their research has come. Their research started off with a mouse and eventually pushed them to move on to bigger, human-sized implants. The team became very optimistic that they could replicate the success with mechanical devices, and they may even go beyond that by using bio-engineered stem cells.

Even though they continue to achieve good news from their field of research, they admit that they still have a long way to go before they can start applying their findings on human subjects.

The first thing on their list is to conduct more tests and extensive trials on goats using their current project to gain a better understanding of how exactly the eDAPS mechanism functions. The group also plans on mapping out the eDAPS model in conjunction to the intervertebral disc degeneration in human subjects. This can become very useful when they want to move their study to clinical trials.

Dr. Smith has noted that the process of creating a biological device using your own supply of stem cells is very desirable. He also added that the process of motion-preserving, real tissue-engineered devices in arthroplasty is unparalleled in magnitude and can become something that hasn't been achieved in the orthopedic field.

In time and with continuous success, Dr. Smith believes that the study could become a paradigm shift that the medicinal industry needs to approach spinal injuries and diseases. It could even prove useful to the motion sparing through innovative reconstruction of the joints.

THE FUTURE IN SPINAL DISC DAMAGE TREATMENT

Many chiropractic clinics are now looking into the advancement of this treatment because of how it can become a game changer in the industry. Absolute Integrative Physical Medicine currently offers holistic treatment to address such issues and has been looking forward to the research so that they can offer it on their clinic very soon. There's no telling on when exactly this treatment is going to be made available to the public but with the progress being shown so far, there's high hopes that it will be very soon. In the meantime, be sure to check out the website of Absolute Integrative Physical Medicine to learn more about their spinal disc treatments and other chiropractic-related services that you can avail. You can also call their office at (707) 474-5688 to get some in-depth details about their chiropractic services.