Crucial Differences in the
Mechanism of Action of Stem Cell Transplantation and (Chemical) Drug
Therapy
Cell transplantation is a vastly different approach to
medical therapy and cannot be immediately understood by mind accustomed to
deal with (chemical) drug therapy.
In order to comprehend this statement, you should
visualize that
- everything in the living body is in constant
motion: electrons, protons, and other elementary particles of each atom, all
atoms, all molecules, all cell organelles of every cell, as well as all fluids,
which represent between 75 and 55% of body weight (depending upon
age),
and that
- there is electromagnetic radiation associated with all
such movement, a subject almost completely neglected by medical
science,
- and finally the following.
Every cell in your body is programmed to die, and it
does so before you die. (The sole exception may be certain
neurons.)
All cells of our body are being continuously
replaced, albeit each kind with different speed.
In every disease the principal cells of a diseased
organ(s) die faster than the sick body is able to replace
them.
When the quantity of principal cells of a diseased
organ(s) drops below certain limit, such organ(s) dies.
If it is a vitally important organ, without which one
cannot live, such as heart, or brain, for example, and surgeons cannot replace
such a dying organ(s), the sick organism will die, too.
Current medicine knows of one treatment only when it
becomes mandatory to replace dead cells, tissues, or organs:
transplantation.
Transplantation of organs from human donors, such
as heart, kidney, liver, etc., have become fairly common nowadays. These are
life saving major surgical procedures, usually done as a "treatment of last
resort".
Besides the surgical risk, there is always a problem of
rejection: the body of the recipient patient rejects transplanted organ from
another body with guarantee, and the only way to prevent it is by taking
immunosuppressants for the rest of patient’s life. These drugs can stop a
rejection for some time, but only at the expense of serious, often
life-endangering, complications.
Some organs cannot be transplanted, such as brain,
immune system, so that many diseases cannot be treated by organ
transplantation.
Stem cell transplantation has historically preceded
organ transplantation by several decades. It will apparently dominate the
medicine of 21st century. The main reasons for such statements
are:
- Stem cell transplantation is a minor procedure for
a patient, and for that reason it can be, and should be, used in the earlier
stages of those diseases that current medicine cannot cure, or even treat.
It means that there is no logical reason to wait until the end-stage, as is
the case with organ transplantation.
- One of the reasons why stem cell transplantation is such
a simple procedure for a patient to go through is the principle of
“homing”.
“Homing” means that the respective stem cells do
not have to be implanted into a damaged organ, (e.g. liver stem cells into
liver), they can be implanted into more accessible superficial tissues, (e.g.
under the aponeurosis of an abdominal muscle), because they will find
their way into the damaged organ, as if 'attracted' by it.
- Every diseased organ can be treated by stem cell
transplantation.
- Besides serving as a replacement for dead cells of a
diseased organ, the transplanted cells can bring back to life (or repair)
those cells of such organ which actually have not died, just stopped functioning
as a result of the disease.
In other words, besides transplanting
new stem cells there is another mechanism of action of stem cell
transplantation: a 'direct stimulation of regeneration (or
repair)'.
- If stem cells are properly prepared, such as by our
method, they can be implanted without immunosuppression, and thus avoid
all complications caused by the use of such medications.
The therapeutic effect of drugs of chemical origin is
not as broad as those of any of the 200+ known types of cells transplantated
into a body with insufficient quantity or quality of a particular cell type(s).
Drugs of chemical origin are used to modify a specific
function, and their effect is usually narrowly focused.
You should be aware that there are two schools
of medical thought in the field of stem cell transplantation
today:
| 1. |
Recent U.S. school, whereby a
transplantation of only one type of stem cell is used for the treatment
of patient's disease, e.g. pancreatic islet cells to treat diabetes mellitus
and diabetic complications, such as retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy,
diabetic vascular disease, etc.
|
| 2. |
Original German school, whereby a patient
receives a simultaneous transplantation of several types of stem cells
for the treatment of his/her disease(s); the choice of transplanted cells
depends upon the pathophysiology of the patient's disease.
As an example, a patient with type 1
(insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus with complications, will usually
receive - besides pancreatic islet cells -
at least five other types of cells of all those organs
or tissues, that no longer function properly as a result of many years'
lasting metabolic abnormality caused by diabetes mellitus.
In other words, the German school believes that by the
time a patient undergoes stem cell transplantation, her/his diabetes mellitus
had become very advanced,
and there is an impairment of some other organs, besides
Langerhans islets of pancreas, which all require treatment by stem cell
transplantation. |
According to the German school, stem cell transplant's
combination(s) used for the treatment of complications of type 1 diabetes
mellitus could never be the same as one used for a patient with
complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus.
A patient with complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus
can be successfully treated by stem cell transplantation also(!), with the
exception of significantly obese patients in whom the treatment of obesity has
been repeatedly unsuccessful.
The German school does agree with the U.S. school in some
clinical situations, such as for example in cases where the patient is a small
child that just became ill with type 1 diabetes mellitus: the treatment by
implanting of pancreatic islet cells only would be perfectly adequate
here.
In summary, the German school requires that the
treatment be 'individualized' by 'tailoring' the combination of stem cell
transplants to a specific disease of a specific patient.
Modern medicine has tried to eliminate drug combinations
and cure a specific disease by giving a patient a single drug (of chemical
origin). These political trends continue even though with each passing day
western patients have been taking ever larger number of various drugs, which
often "beat each other".
Under the Oath of Hippocrates physicians should treat
their patients the best way they know how.
When the disease(s) of a specific patient requires and
responds to drugs of chemical origin, he should be treated that way, when
patient's disease(s) requires and responds to stem cell transplantation, there
should be no hesitation to use such a treatment, and when a combination of both
is necessary, so be it.
(Although we follow the classical German school in our
clinical advice, we will gladly prepare individual stem cell transplants
in any dosage requested by those physicians who follow the U.S. school of
thought.)
There are no incurable diseases only those that we do
not know how to cure yet.
Given the opportunity stem cell transplantation will
lower the number of incurable diseases.