Is your knee swollen, stiff, and slow to straighten? You may have torn your meniscus. That’s the C-shaped piece of cartilage that cushions your shinbone from your thighbone like a shock absorber and distributes weight across your knee joint. This very common knee injury has traditionally been treated with surgery to remove frayed cartilage and tissue, often leaving them vulnerable to further damage in the future.
Stem cell product may target the root cause of your pain by stimulating your body to regenerate its own damaged cells.
Physicians have been using stem cell injections to regenerate the meniscuses of professional athletes for over20 years. Introducing mesenchymal stem cells into torn cartilage may stimulate the patient’s own cells’ regenerative properties, helping to repair the injury, relieve pain, and promote healthy new cell growth.
Performing a McMurray test is a common and effective way of confirming or ruling out a medial or lateral meniscal tear. Your practitioner will ask you to lie down on an exam table and flex your knee as far as you can, then relax it. He or she will then grasp your ankle while palpating and rotating your lower leg internally and externally and extending the knee. If you hear a “click” while your knee is rotating and extending, you’ve likely torn your meniscus.
If these exams are inconclusive(potentially because of the size or position of the tear) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can produce detailed images of all your knee’s soft tissues and determine whether your damage extends beyond the meniscus.
How can stem cells treat a torn meniscus?
Injured cells in your skin, bones, muscles, ligaments, tendons, and connective joints send out signals. Stem cells respond to those signals, migrating to the injured tissue and release proteins that nourish and stimulate your own cells’ regeneration process.
Once your provider injects them, these stem cells dock next to your damaged cells and release growth factors, cytokines, and chemokines which then may:
- Activate T-cells to secrete proteins
- Open your blood vessels and form new ones
- Move cells out of your blood vessels and into the tissues surrounding them
- Stimulate your cells to regenerate your tissue
- Inhibit your inflammation
- Regulate your immune system
Where do these live stem cells come from?
The umbilical cord blood of healthy newborns. If a pregnant woman is not planning to keep her unborn child’s umbilical cord, she may choose to donate it. She’ll be asked to sign an informed consent form, followed by medical and social history reviews, as well as a blood test.
After a new mother meets all donor eligibility requirements and safely delivers her baby, the umbilical cord blood is collected in a sterile cord blood collection pouch and sent to a lab. The cord blood is processed within 48 hours using proprietary methods. A sample of the finished product is tested by an independent third party lab for sterility. The umbilical cord stem cells are distributed once the lab reports have passed mandatory regulatory requirements.
What is a common torn meniscus recovery time?
Usually, pain relief begins immediately after treatment. Regeneration time varies depending on your age, genetics, general health, injury severity and your ability to follow post-treatment care instructions, along with your rehabilitation program to strengthen affected areas.
What are the side effects of stem cell injections?
As with any injection procedure, there is a small risk of bacterial infection (not associated with the product) and nerve damage. If you experience severe pain, bleeding, or swelling at your injection site, or experience symptoms like fever, nausea, dizziness, or vomiting, seek emergency medical care right away.
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