What is Bio-Active Regenerative Fluid and Does It Work
Let’s get down to the facts. Another name for Bio-active regenerative fluid is amnion-derived fluid, and let’s address the “yuckiness” question right away – it is not Amniotic fluid. Amniotic fluid is the liquid a developing fetus floats around in for 9 months. Amniotic fluid is made up of water, proteins, lipids, hormones, urine and other metabolic waste, and electrolytes. Now, there actually ARE labs that create stem cell products derived from amniotic fluid, but the work involved, the filtering required, and the fact that the stem cells are floating around with a multitude of other items non-essential byproducts and waste products does not make it an attractive or optimal choice for us as a high quality product for our doctors and their patients.
We want to use provide THE most potent stem-cell derived medicine products available. In contrast to amniotic fluid, amnion-derived fluid is produced from the culturing of amniotic mesenchymal stem cells and amniotic epithelial cells that are obtained from the amnion of the amniotic membrane. The amnion is the inner layer of the amniotic membrane in which the growing fetus develops – the internal lining of the placenta, and the chorion is the outer layer of the placenta. The amnion layer of the placenta is rich with healthy stem cells that provide growth factors that assist in a fetus’s growth. When these two layers are peeled apart in the lab, the innermost mesenchymal and epithelial stem cells (from the amnion layer) are then released from the amniotic membrane using enzymes.
After the enzymatic release of the cells, these cells are centrifuged, then isolated to be cultured in an expansion medium. That culturing, or growing, of the stem cells is notable because it creates a rich, concentrated “bath” of the most powerful stem cells with no contaminants. The resulting expansion medium becomes conditioned by the cells growing inside it and the cells release a wide variety of desirable growth factors; these growth factors are harvested as amnion-derived fluid.
This description of amnion-derived fluid addresses another cringe-inducing question, and one that also gets into the realm of ethics. “Does this mean you use embryos?” Absolutely not. In fact, our amnion derived bio-active regenerative product is derived from the nutrient rich, ethically sourced, placenta of a healthy baby born by cesarean section.
Another question we are asked regularly: “Is this like stem cells that you can get from my body? I heard you can pull my own stem cells from my hip bone and inject them back into me and it’s supposed to be amazing!” We all have stem cells throughout our bodies, including the types you may have heard of, such as those extracted from our blood and bone marrow. We also have stem cells in our hearts and brains, and other organs and tissues. Mainly, bone and blood stem cells are currently primarily used in stem cell treatments; they are extracted and processed and then injected into the injured area of your body. This can be expensive, it can be painful, and the whole process takes time. There are many names for these various types of treatment; PRP, BMAC, Adipose, etc.
There have been studies on PRP (using the stem cells derived from your blood) and BMAC (using the stem cells derived from your bone marrow) that show the quality of this type of stem cell therapy is affected by many factors including age and sex of the patient, and the handling of the cells by the technician who does the processing. In fact, even in samples from the same patient, there can be a wide latitude of difference of in quality of the extracted cells and therefore wide latitude in the efficacy of the final stem cell treatment.
Another, perhaps more compelling consideration: these are the stem cells of an adult, and unlike the stem cells originating in the amniotic environment, they have limited ability to perform as well as stem cells from the amniotic environment. Your own stem cells don’t have the high level of regenerative or anti-inflammatory properties of compared to stem cells derived from the amnion.
An extraordinary transformation takes place in that rich amniotic environment that starts with 2 cells and ends only 9 months later with a full grown healthy baby. Thinking of potency and quality as our goals, it would seem like the only option to consider, of all possible stem cell types and origins, would be to work with these already powerful amnion-derived stem cells that are then cultured to be more potent than any others. Why would you we use anything less?
Oh, and let’s not forget the last thing: Does stem cell therapy really work? We have many patients and doctors with terrific success stories, and there are growing numbers of clinical trials, case studies, and white papers that prove the efficacy of stem cell therapies. This cutting-edge medicine is used for everything from joint pain, to eye problems, to knee injuries that might ordinarily need surgery, to kidney disease and osteoarthritis.
So yes, it works.