What Stem Cells Are

Understanding Stem Cells

Our bodies are made up of cells. muscle cells, bone cells, blood cells, skin cells, etc. Every aspect of our anatomy is comprised of living cells. Over time, these cells can become damaged in a variety of ways or die off. When cells become injured and or begin to die, they use a messaging system called paracrine signaling to call for help which activates our body’s healing abilities. And our body’s healing abilities are largely comprised of and dependent on adult stem cells. Adult stem cells are different than regular cells in that they have the ability to replicate or multiply, and also to differentiate or become various types of regular cells. This ability allows adult stem cells to repair and replace damaged cells and perform the body’s process of healing itself.

There are three types of stem cells:

Embryonic Stem Cells

These stem cells divide and provide cells to an embryo as it develops into a baby. Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent stem cells meaning they can not only replicate but can become any type of cell. Pangenics Regenerative Center does not use embryonic stem cells in any way and we conduct no research on embryonic stem cells.

Adult Stem Cells

There are many different types of stem cells within us that work to support the health of every cell in our body. The term “Adult Stem Cells” is a general term for all of the different types of stem cells we have after we are born.

Adult stem cells are referred to as “multipotent”, meaning they can differentiate into more than one type of cell, but not any type of cell like embryonic stem cells. This is best explained by thinking of all the different adult stem cells of our body as having different areas of responsibility. Some are responsible for and differentiate into the cells related to one particular organ while other types of stem cells are more versatile and can differentiate into a variety of cell types.

Umbilical Cord  Stem Cells

Umbilical cord cells contain both hematopoietic as well as mesenchymal stem cells. However, because of sterilization requirements, {irradiation}, we have not been able to identify live cells in any cord cell products produced in the U.S. Some off-shore providers such as those located in Panama, are able to provide live cord cells because of the lack of sterilization requirements.

Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs)

Of the many different types of adult stem cells that work to keep all the different cells of our body healthy, there is one particular type of stem cell called “mesenchymal stem cells”. Mesenchymal stem cells are multipotent stem cells that support the mesenchymal tissues of our body. They have the ability to differentiate into bone cells, cartilage cells, tissue cells, muscle cells, and fat cells. Also, like other adult stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells replicate and multiply.

While mesenchymal stem cells can be found throughout the body, the majority are contained in the superficial layer of our body fat. 2 ounces of fat may contain u to 50,000,000 mesenchymal stem cells while 2 ounces of bone marrow contains as few as 10,000 mesenchymal stem cells.

Two areas that contain the largest quantities of mesenchymal stem cells are bone marrow and adipose tissue, (body fat). 2 ounces of bone marrow can yield as many as 10,000 viable mesenchymal stem cells. However, the processes and techniques we have developed at Pangenics Regenerative Center allow us to harvest up to 50,000,000 viable mesenchymal stem cells from only 2 ounces of body fat.

Learn more about how we harvest millions of your own mesenchymal stem cells and immediately use them for joint and spinal pain conditions and to enhance certain plastic surgery procedures.

In May of 2015 an article was published in the National Center for Biotechnology Information website; a division of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The article is titled: Body Management: Mesenchymal Stem Cells Control the Internal Regenerator, and offers extensive details about mesenchymal stem cells and how they function.