Dr Venkatesh Movva, MD, Sports Medicine & Founder,RegenOrthoSport explains the role and future of regenerative medicine in India
Regenerative medicine aims at fixing or regenerating damaged or diseased tissues and organs by using stem cells and tissue engineering, among other methods. It has the capacity of radically improving treatments carried out on a wide range of illnesses and injuries, from diabetes and heart disease to spinal cord injuries and bone defects.
Regenerative medicine has several approaches, such as using stem cells to stimulate a body’s repair system, growing replacement tissues and organs in the laboratory, and using small molecules or biologics to stimulate tissue repair.
The goal of RegenOrthoSport protocols is to provide non-invasive methods of treatment with Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate injections into the injured part. To treat ailments of the knees, elbows, joints, hips, shoulders, spine, hands, wrists, feet and ankles, Regenexx has brought about several interventional orthopaedic processes and protocols.
Areas in which regenerative medicine can play a significant role:
- Musculoskeletal injuries: A significant amount of research work is on to devise processes to use stem cells and tissue engineering to improve joint health and repair damaged bones, tendons and ligaments
- Cardiovascular diseases: Researchers are trying to devise ways and means of using stem cells to repair damaged heart tissues, and develop lab-cultured blood vessels and heart valves
- Treatment of diabetes: Scientists are also trying to devise procedures to use stem cells so that they can regenerate insulin-producing cells in the pancreas for curing diabetes
- Neurological disorders: Researchers are experimenting on ways to use stem cells to repair damaged tissues that comprise the brain and spinal cord. These may be used to treat strokes and spinal cord injuries
- Treatment of wounds: Research into stem cell and other procedures is also on to make the process of healing wounds faster. These might be beneficial in treating non-healing, traumatic, infected surgical or other kinds of chronic wounds such as venous ulcers, pressure ulcers, diabetic foot ulcers, and ischemic ulcers—or other injuries
A moderately new subject, regenerative medicine is still in its infancy—not popular in India at present. But this branch of medicine has attracted a lot of attention lately and many scientists and clinicians in the country have been trying to discover new roads to effective use of regenerative medicine.
The Regenexx group of doctors has made path-breaking advances in regenerative medicine for the past 14 years. Regenexx physicians offer regenerative alternatives to traditional treatment of sports injuries since early last decade. They have played a pioneering role in this branch of medicine. The treatment protocols have evolved over the past decade and are now a time-tested means of treating regular orthopaedic conditions.
Since regenerative medicine is still a relatively new branch of therapy, much more research needs to go into understanding how the procedures will work and how they can be effectively extrapolated on other medicine branches. For more advancements in realizing the entire range of possibilities that regenerative medicine holds, it is important to continue clinical trials, besides developing a regulatory framework and infrastructure for its use.