Regenerative Medicine

What is Regenerative Medicine?

Regenerative medicine is an exciting development in medicine that is showing effectiveness for certain degenerative or soft tissue injury conditions and great promise for potential expanded treatment indications. When your body incurs damage as a result of injury or disease, your immune system acts to heal the damage and prevent infection.

Growth factors and other cells in your blood flood into the damaged tissues and start the repair process in what’s usually an effective and efficient process. The theory behind regenerative medicine is that by stimulating the body’s natural healing abilities, it’s possible to repair damaged tissue and generate healthy new tissue in patients with soft tissue injuries and certain degenerative conditions.

What Kinds of Regenerative Medicine Treatments are Available?

There are several types of regenerative medicine treatments available, and Dr. Huang-Lionnet at Greenwich Health has tested several of the technologies currently available on the market to ensure the highest quality and standards are achieved. The team at Greenwich Health also utilizes the latest ultrasound-based imaging guidance to target the delivery of such treatments to optimize your likelihood of a positive response to these advanced therapies.

Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP)

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) consists of concentrated platelets and growth factors that promote healing and regeneration of injured tissues.  Since PRP is derived from your own body, this treatment is 100% natural. While platelets are the primary component of PRP, preparations may also contain other cellular components such as white blood cells (WBCs) and peripheral stem cells. These components all may play a biological role in the healing process and are provided at concentrated levels in PRP that can be tailored to your specific etiology.

Both platelets and the plasma content of your blood contain growth factors, including PDGF, TGF-β, VEGF, and SDF-1α, that are essential for healing and tissue regeneration.  PRP treatments can be alternatives to minimize the potential need for surgical intervention and use of pain medications, that may lead to tolerance and dependency.

By extracting your blood and passing it through an extraction system, the team at Greenwich Health isolates a purified serum that contains high concentrations of the plasma and platelets that can be targeted to your treatment area.

Stem Cells

Stem cells are at the core of the tissue regeneration process. They are required to rebuild and repair damaged tissue at an injury site. Platelets release several growth factors, such as SDF-1α, that function to induce migration of stem cells to the damaged tissue during the healing process.

PRP provides these growth factors in high concentrations. In addition, some PRP preparations also contain stem cells isolated directly from the blood sample during processing, which can directly support tissue regeneration.

What Conditions does Regenerative Medicine Treat?

Regenerative medicine is still in its early days and there’s a great deal of research in progress, but regenerative medicine has shown promising clinical results for patients who have:

• Joint pain
• Arthritis
• Soft tissue injuries
• Tendon and ligament damage
• Plantar fasciitis
• Tendonitis

There are also aesthetic applications for regenerative medicine, such as facial rejuvenation and hair restoration treatments.  Find out more about the ways regenerative medicine can help you by calling Greenwich Health today or book an appointment online.