Regular visitors to this blog know that I have been touting the Vet-Stem company(here, here, here, and here) for months for its innovative repair stem cell therapy for pets- cats, dogs, and horses.  Thousands of pets and their owners are living happier lives thanks to this wonderful company which uses the pet's own repair (adult) stem cells to heal them.

Now, thanks to my constant promotion of Vet-Stem (or in spite of it :), they have hit the big time- Time Magazine.  In the article, Time covers a dog and its owner that we already have covered here:

Blue leads an active lifestyle: she runs four times a week around an enormous park in her hometown of Memphis, Tenn.; she likes playing Frisbee and loves swimming. But one day last November, Blue started limping which was odd because the German shepherd seemed fit and was only 3 1/2 years old. "She wasn't recovering as quickly as normal from a trek in the park. I thought that was just a sign of aging," says her owner Twila Waters, 43, with a wry chuckle.

In fact, Blue had hip dysplasia, a fairly common and sometimes crippling degenerative condition in dogs and cats. The cure a complete hip replacement would keep Blue in recovery for up to six months. So while Waters mulled the surgery, Blue's regular veterinarian sent Waters to see another local vet, Kathy Mitchener, who was trained in acupuncture, to treat Blue's pain. But Mitchener had a better idea. She offered a cutting-edge stem-cell transplant, a therapy not yet available to humans, that would potentially help Blue's hip repair itself.

The treatment took just two days last January. Mitchener had recently become certified to perform the stem-cell treatment, pioneered by the company Vet-Stem based in San Diego. She removed some fatty tissue from the dog's abdomen and shipped the sample to Vet-Stem's labs, where technicians used centrifuges to extract stem cells from the tissue. The cells were shipped back the next day, and Mitchener injected them into Blue's failing hip, where they adapted and developed into the healthy cartilage and tendon cells the animal needed. Within 36 hours, Waters says, "Blue was moving well, and you could see an ease in her gait." Vet-Stem kept a frozen store of Blue's stem cells, in case she suffers a relapse or has another orthopedic injury, but for now, Blue is fully cured and back to running and swimming and playing with her friends.

"It's comforting for me to know I've done what I can to alleviate Blue's pain," Waters says. "She loves to play so much that fixing her hip really improved both our qualities of life."

That last sentence says it all, Repair Stem Cells- improving the quality of lives everyday.  Click here to read this big Time article

The World Ophthamology Congress 2008 is just finishing up its annual meeting in Hong Kong this week.  And unsurprisingly, repair stem cells have stolen the show.  In another breakthrough in stem cell research, a surgeon did a trial in which he implanted the patient's own stem cells back into their retinas' and the repair stem cells did their job and repaired the macular holes it seems:

"We have entered into a new era," Raj Vardhan Azad, MD, FRCS, FAMS, said at the World Ophthalmology Congress. "The technique of transplantation of bone marrow [stem] cells in the subretinal space is safe with no side effects and is a new concept." In this study, 10 patients who had previously failed macular hole surgery underwent bone marrow aspiration from the iliac crest and intravitreal implantation of those stem cells into their retina.

"We thought that this was something that could give us a benefit in the sense that it may close the hole and also increase the visual acuity," Dr. Azad said.

Preoperatively, the mean best corrected visual acuity of the patients was 6/60 and the mean optical coherence tomography measurement was 792 µm. At 1 week postop, BCVA was 4/60. At 3 months postop, BCVA was 6/60 and the OCT measurement was 629 µm. Dr. Azad presented the OCT images that showed the macular hole had closed or become smaller in the 10 patients, who had stable vision

Experimental evidence following intravitreal implantation of bone marrow stem cells indicates integration and proliferation of stem cells into different retinal layers," Dr. Azad said. "Clinical evidence, as shown in our study, indicates that it is safe. (of course it is safe- it is the patient's own repair stem cells-DM)

"We have the evidence that stem cell productivity could eventually be used to treat deteriorating vision in humans," Dr. Azad said.  (Eventually? Why not start now?- DM)

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Today, I am happy to present another warm and happy stem cell story.  4 years ago, Wu Fanli was dying from leukemia.  She needed a stem cell transplant to live.  Luckily, she found a matching donor in Dr. Yang Gang.  Recently, they met for the first time in a "reunion" of sorts:

"When I was told by the stem-cell bank that my sample matched a leukemia patient, I thought it is lucky for both the patient and me. It's one way I can really give direct help to sick people apart from my job," he said. "Today I'm extremely glad to meet the girl, who is recovering so well."

And Wu says: "The donor has given me a second life, and no words can fully express my gratitude."

Again, I urge you to become registered as a bone marrow donor-- http://www.marrow.org   .  It may give you the opportunity to save someone's life and make a lifelong friend by giving your Adult Stem Cells (don't worry, your body makes more!) .

Click here to read the full article