Harvesting Different Types of Stem Cells

Interviewer: So, using our own stem cells eliminates the controversy I guess.  Is that why science steered that way?

Dr. Joel Baumgartner: Yeah.  They're still doing embyotically.  I think that there's a lot more regulations when it comes to what you can do with embryos, and how much you can study them.  There is probably a lot of science still to come out of that.  I mean, it's not my interest, and I think the great thing about using your own stem cells is one you don't have the controversy.  This is not the stem cells of 1980 that we're talking about, you know, cloning a cow or a sheep.  This is really looking at your own body's stem cells which have been there for as long as humans have been alive, we've had stem cells.  It's just taking the cells that have always been there and concentrating them down, then putting them into the environment to get them to heal and repair that area that we need to.

Interviewer: As of now the only way to get stem cells from the body is bone marrow?

Dr. Joel Baumgartner: You can get it from bone marrow.  You can also get them from adipose.  So, another option to get your stem cells is to do a little liposuction, which we've done as well.  You take those fat cells.  You get the stem cells out of that fat.  The only problem with that, compared to the bone marrow derived stem cells is the fat tissue stem cells, they like to turn more into organs.  So, I think down the line with research, once it pans out, that stem cell might be better to help regenerate some cardiac tissue or to help regenerate a pancreas for a diabetic, or to help regenerate the liver from a cirratic liver patient.  Whereas the bone marrow derived stem cells, they like to turn more into cartilage, to bone, to ligaments, to tendons.  So, between the two camps there, the bone marrow stem cells are looking like they're better for the orthopedic type of procedures and medical conditions, whereas the fat derived stem cells might be better for the internal organ type indications for it.