Dogs Get Pricey Stem Cell Therapy
From LiveScience.com
Stem cell therapy is still years away for you, but for your pooch this modern medical procedure is now available.
Vet-Stem, a privately held company in San Diego, Calif., began offering fat-derived stem cell therapy this month for treatment of arthritis as well as tendon and ligament injuries in dogs.
The pricey procedure uses an animal’s own fat to obtain adult stem cells, which are then injected into the problematic area to stimulate growth of healthy cells, spurring regeneration.
“We’ve seen stem cell therapy help dogs whose pain was previously so severe that they struggled to stand, jump into cars, chase balls or run up and down stairs,” said Robert Harman, DVM, and founder of Vet-Stem.
Treatment cost ranges from $2,000 to $3,000.
So far, the company has trained more than 100 board certified small animal veterinary surgeons nationwide to offer the procedure.
How it works
About two tablespoons of fat, usually from the abdomen or shoulder blade area, are removed from an anesthetized dog for shipment to the company. Within 48 hours, the laboratory isolates stem and regenerative cells from the fat and ships them back to surgeons in ready-to-inject syringes.
Cells are not engineered or modified in any way, the company says, and in dogs with osteoarthritis, extra cells are frozen in case re-treatment is necessary.
Stem cells are known for their amazing ability to morph into any kind of tissue, but Harman says they do so much more.
“A huge part of what they do is to provide growth factors and chemicals that help the injury heal,” he said. “It does so by reducing inflammation — it actually blocks inflammatory molecules. They block scar tissue from forming and they recruit in all other kind of healing and stem cells from other places in the body, so they’re actually like a master healing cell.”
Since 2004, the company says it has successfully treated 3,000 horses with tendon, ligament and joint injuries, with many going on to compete again at their prior level of performance.
About 200 dogs have been treated by the company in the past three years. Harman said the only side effect seen in a small number of cases is inflammation at the injection site, lasting a few days.
