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Billings veterinary clinic conducts city’s first dog stem cell therapy treatment

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Thor, an athletic 7-year-old Catahoula leopard hound, lay on a table at the Animal Clinic of Billings, panting lightly while staffers put small bags over his feet and temperature-controlled packs on his chest before the anesthesia kicked in.

Not long after he went under, those same staff members carried Thor to an operating table where his owner, Dr. Bobbi Jo Massic, who is also a veterinarian at the clinic, made a small incision in his abdomen, the first step in a cutting-edge process designed to help the alleviate the dogs hip dysplasia and arthritis.

By the end of Tuesday, Thor became the very first patient in the clinics brand new animal stem cell therapy program.

This is a very exciting day, said Dr. Bryna Felchle, another vet at the clinic who will help spearhead the program. Were launching our very first stem cell therapy right here.

The process is widespread across the United States, but Felchle is just the second vet in Montana certified to perform the procedure and the only one in the eastern half of the state.

Generally, it involves removing fatty tissue from an animal, separating the stem cells from that tissue, activating the cells and then injecting or applying them back into the animal to promote healing or tissue growth.

The stem cells which differentiate and adapt into needed cells and tissues help to treat arthritis, hip dysplasia, ligament and cartilage injuries and other degenerative diseases.

Massic said Thor is a very active dog. Several years ago, he tore an anterior cruciate ligament, for which he underwent three surgeries and has a metal plate and three screws in one of his legs, along with the arthritis and dysplasia.

He has a lot of his active life ahead of him, she said. Were hoping that we can get him back to that mobility he had before.

She also said it could cut down on healing time, since the surgery requires fairly small incisions and a simple injection of the cells later.

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Billings veterinary clinic conducts city's first dog stem cell therapy treatment

Stop stem cell therapy – Doctor

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Manila, Philippines -- If she would have her way, Dr. Marita V.T. Reyes, Co-Chairperson of the Philippine Health Research Ethics Board (PHREB), yesterday said she would put a stop to the medical procedure of stem cell therapy.

Reyes delivered a paper yesterday on the topic, "Ethical Consideration In Stem Cell-based Therapy and Research-Poor Countries," on the last day of the 35th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Department of Science and Technology-National Academy of Science and Technology (DOST-NAST) at the historic landmark Manila Hotel.

Reyes acknowledged that there is a "standard" stem cell therapy treatment involving "hematopoietic disorders," such as "leukemia and lymphomas," through "bone marrow or cord blood transplant."

She, however, emphasized that this cannot be said yet in the cases of diseases of the heart, eyes, diabetes, stroke, spinal cord injury, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Lou Gehrig's (ALS), multiple sclerosis, cancer, and cartilage repair.

Stem cell therapy for these diseases, she stressed, should be stopped.

"If I have the power, I will say, 'stop this in the meantime, until the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has come up with a quality assurance. Until the FDA is able to say that what you say is there, is there, we have no way of protecting our people," said Reyes, when asked about the ethics board's possible advice.

"So, as far as I am concerned, I would like the stem cell therapy, meaning for people who are saying they are using stem cell therapy, to stop, until we have set up very clear quality assurance (system)," the PHREB official said.

Stem cell therapy discussions resulted from the reported death of three Filipino politicians, and the complaint of a government official, after allegedly subjecting themselves from the controversial medical procedure.

Dr. Francisco Chung, Jr., of the Makati Medical Center (MMC), on the other hand, conceded that there are many stem cell procedures that are "experimental in nature."

"What we have approved clinically is bone marrow transplantation," he said, citing the approval of the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA).

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Stop stem cell therapy – Doctor