Clinics may also inject cells into the wrong place. You can imagine that injecting cells into the back including sometimes into the intervertebral space (the area between discs) has risks. Some clinics claim that the results of others like good citizen biotechs mean that what they themselves are selling at clinics works. For example, clinics or chiropractors selling perinatal materials like from amnion or placenta may not even have living, actual stem cells in what they give customers. Many times what they are selling is bogus. The same gap exists for their supposed treatments for neck pain and other conditions. Unfortunately, the clinics generally have no good evidence that what they are selling actually works or is safe for back pain. Pitching more conditions mentioned by businesses equals more customers but is not necessarily based on medical logic. The same general issues mentioned as possible causes of back pain can lead to pain elsewhere too like if you have disc, muscle or tendon injuries in your neck. For that reason, we often see unproven stem cell clinics selling similar injections for back, neck, and other pain-related conditions. On the flip side, hundreds of stem cell clinics are selling the idea of cell therapies for back pain and other related conditions. Also, the FDA recently granted an RMAT for Mesoblast here so that’s something. The cell therapy was generally well tolerated too, but some patients getting the cells had side effects. In this randomized, blinded, placebo-controlled study, there were some indications of significant benefit of the mesenchymal precursor cells. However, this other Mesoblast-funded study paper appears to be the key trial even if it doesn’t use the exact drug name. The data as listed on is very hard to interpret so I turned to the literature.Ī PubMed search for Rexlemestrocel-L yielded only two papers and neither related to the back pain study. This relevant trial used Mesoblast’s Rexlemestrocel-L. Only two of these trial listings have results and only one of those is on topic. (See also: Fact-check of stem cell therapy for pain & neuropathy.) Some of the sponsors are stem cell clinics but there is also solid research ongoing at universities. I found 37 trial listings on for a search for stem cells and back pain. The data just aren’t there to support selling this kind of thing now for back pain, but research is ongoing. The idea behind these MSC offerings is to reduce inflammation that causes pain. So this is often not technically a stem cell therapy but it’s still frequently called “stem cell therapy.” However, these cellular products are mostly prepared in ways such that true stem cells only constitute a small minority of the cells in the products. ![]() What we most often hear about in terms of stem cells for back pain are injections of mesenchymal cells like MSCs. How stem cell therapy for back pain could work Tendon issues can also be painful in the back. I once had a minor disc injury high up that made my arm hurt and tingle for a while.īack problems and pain can also be due to muscle injuries or other muscle issues. One of the most common injuries causing such pain is to the spine or more specifically the discs.ĭisc injuries often include herniations or other damage, which can cause pain both in the back but also elsewhere. What is back pain? | How stem cell therapy for back pain could work | Data | Unproven clinics | References What is back pain?īack pain can be caused by various injuries to different parts of the back. Where does the research stand today? Let’s get into it. It is in these areas where this is the best hope based on data and clinic trials. Stem cell therapy or other cell therapy approaches really only make sense even in theory for back pain caused by certain things. What about stem cells? Stem cells for back pain? Let’s look at the data for our fact check. New treatments are needed as existing approaches often don’t work that well. I often get asked about where things stand with stem cell therapy for back pain, which is the focus of today’s post.īack pain is a complex condition with many potential causes.
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