Patient uses fat stem cells to repair his wrist
By Samantha Bresnahan, CNN
(CNN) Bill Marlette was a long way from home, but he was willing to take the risk, as there were really no other options.
He was tired of the daily pain that made even shaking someone’s hand almost unbearable.
Marlette lost his arm in an accident when he was a teenager, but as an active kid, he didn’t this slow him down. He continued to play football and golf, running track and even wrestling.
But over time, the strain on his remaining arm and wrist took a toll.
So to relieve his pain, he traveled from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to Munich, Germany, with the hopes that a special procedure using stem cells could make a difference.
“There’s no cartilage,” Marlette said of his wrist. “I’m bone-on-bone. It is constantly inflamed and very sore.”
As Marlette grew older, even the simplest things, like tucking in his shirt or putting on a jacket, became incredibly painful.
Regenerating hope
Marlette developed cysts and holes in the bones of his wrist. Doctors prescribed anti-inflammatory medications, but they only managed the pain, doing nothing to actually heal the problem. One day, his doctor, Dr. Bob Van Demark at Sanford Health in South Dakota, where Marlette works in finance, saw a presentation by Dr. Eckhard Alt.
It was about a new treatment using stem cells.
“Following an infection or wound or trauma,” Alt said, “there comes a call to the stem cells in the blood vessels, which are silent, and nature activates those cells.”
Stem cells are located throughout our bodies, like a reserve army offering regeneration and repair. When we’re injured or sick, our stem cells divide and create new cells to replace those that are damaged or killed. Depending on where the cells are in the body, they adapt, becoming specialized as blood cells, muscle cells or brain cells, for example.
Alt was the first person to use adipose tissue, or fat, as a prime source of stem cells, according to Dr. David Pearce, executive vice president for research at Sanford health.
“He observed that the simplest place to get some stem cells is really from the fat,” said Pearce. “Most of us could give some fat up, and those stem cells don’t have to be programmed in any way, but if you put in the right environment, they will naturally turn into what the cell type around them is.”
Fat tissue has a lot of blood vessels, making it a prime source of stem cells, and Alt recognized that stem cells derived from adipose tissue are also particularly good at becoming cartilage and bone.
Stem cells are taken from fat tissue with a liposuction procedure. An enzyme mixture helps to separate the stem cells from oil and fat tissue, with the stem cells settling at the bottom of the vial.
Bone marrow is another source of stem cells, but these easily turn into blood and immune cells. Stem cells from fat have another fate.
“Fat-derived stem cells have a different lineage they can turn into, that is really cartilage and bone and other sort of connective tissues,” said Pearce.