When people discuss “fat stem cells” they usually mean “stromal vascular fraction” or SVF. While references to fat or adipose stem cells can sometimes mean non-SVF materials, these days adipose SVF gets the most attention. But, does anyone have a clear picture of this biologic? Fortunately, it’s starting to come more into focus in recent years […]
What is stromal vascular fraction or SVF? Read More »
Do the hundreds of unproven fat stem cell clinics in the U.S. like Stemgenex have a tenable future without working with the FDA? It seems less certain now in 2018 than it did in 2017, and that’s a good thing in my view. Stemgenex received an FDA warning letter yesterday that included a list of many
Sizing Up Sizzling FDA Warning Letter to Fat Stem Cell Clinic Stemgenex Read More »
Are fat stem cells a drug? Today the FDA definitively indicated “yes” without leaving much of any room for exceptions on this question. This morning the FDA made a major announcement on stem cell policy regarding its current thinking on oversight of regenerative medicine and issued four guidances, including two each in final and in
Fat stem cells are drugs: new FDA final guidances Read More »
Is the largest affiliated group of stem cell clinics in America, Cell Surgical Network, now using laboratory-proliferated stem cells in patients? Do they already have some kind of final FDA approval for this clinical approach given that lab-grown stem cells are generally viewed as drugs requiring premarket approval? Over the years I’ve reached out to
Is it the beginning of the end for dubious American clinics that sell transplants of unproven and non-FDA approved fat stem cell injections? As the year of 2014 was winding down, the FDA issued two key new draft guidances (see here and here) that could prove to be crash diets for these burgeoning fat stem cell clinics. (Update: As of
FDA to Put Mushrooming Fat Stem Cell Clinics on Crash Diet? Read More »
NBC News did a big on-line story and even a NBC Nightly News Segment on dubious stem cell therapies on Friday. Normally a national news story on the problem of the mushrooming stem cell clinics selling unapproved “treatments” would be a positive development, but this otherwise very nicely done story might have a major error that could confuse millions
Did NBC News Err On Key Part of Their Stem Cell Report? Read More »
One of the most concerning new trends in the stem cell arena is the explosive growth of chains of for-profit stem cell clinics in the US including Stem MD. This kind of franchising of stem cell for-profit operations deeply concerns me in terms of its potential risks to increasing numbers of patients and to the
Claims of Stem Cell Cures by Clinic Chain, Stem MD Read More »
A big, fat elephant in “the room” of the commercial stem cell field today is something called stromal vascular fraction or SVF, made from human fat tissue or adipose. If you care at all about stem cells or the stem cell field more generally, you had better educate yourself on SVF. You can learn a
Law and Order SVF: what is stromal vascular fraction? Read More »
About a year ago, I heard from multiple credible sources that there were ongoing federal probes into potential criminal activities related to bogus or dangerously noncompliant stem cell medical interventions, which could lead to prison time. Since then it has been relatively quiet….that is until the last couple months when again I am hearing from
What would federal prison be like for a non-compliant stem cell doc? Read More »
Two emerging acronyms in the for-profit stem cell world that remain unknown to most academic stem cell scientists, but that are generating the most buzz are: SVF and CAL. These are two fat acronyms. What? These acronyms relate to adipose (fat) stem cell-based procedures. SVF stands for “stromal vascular fraction”. SVF is, for lack of
SVF & CAL are two fat stem cell acronyms generating a lot of buzz Read More »