Stem Cell Therapy for Back Pain

Back pain is, unfortunately, very common. It is the second most common cause of missed work and is a leading cause of disability. In most cases, the best prescription for acute back pain is to simply rest the strained area for 2-4 weeks. In the case of chronic back pain, pain that lasts more than three months, the injury will not properly heal without further treatment. If you are suffering from chronic back pain, stem cell therapy may be the solution for your back pain.

Stem cell therapy and regenerative medicine provide cutting edge and minimally-invasive alternatives to surgery and pain medications for back pain. Stem cell therapy seeks to repair the unhealed injury by stimulating the healing process within the patient’s own body.

Common Causes of Back Pain

Herniated Discs
Spinal Osteoarthritis
Muscle Strain
Sciatica

Herniated or Ruptured Discs:

Herniated or Ruptured Discs act as a cushion between the bones of the spine. Discs become herniated or ruptured when the jelly-like center of the disc pushes through a crack in the rubbery outer layer. This can then impinge on the spinal cord and spine nerve causing nerve pain and nerve dysfunction.

Spinal Osteoarthritis or Degenerative Disc Disease:

These terms describe painful conditions that are result of the wearing down of the discs and joints between the vertebrae.

Muscle or Ligament Strain:

repeated heavy lifting can strain back muscles or ligaments. These muscles and ligaments act as the stabilizers for the entire spinal column. While ligament and tendon tears can be painful on their own, a lack of stabilization from their injury results in osteoarthritis and degenerative disc disease over time as the discs and bone joints become injured from the lack of tendon and ligament support.

Sciatica:

Pain radiating along the sciatic nerve which runs down one or both legs from the lower back. This is impingement on the major spinal nerve of the leg, and results from disc herniation or spinal arthritis resulting in narrowing of the spinal canal.

How back pain is treated using Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Therapy

Prolozone Therapy uses an injection of ozone gas along with high concentrate dextrose in order to stimulate growth, healing, repair and endogenous stem cell activation. Dextrose is a mild irritant which turns on a healing response in a tissue that is stuck in a non-functional state of disrepair. Ozone is a simple molecule containing three atoms of oxygen that is both man made and naturally occurring in nature, whose chemical abbreviation is O3. Since it has one extra molecule of oxygen compared to the common forms of oxygen as O2 (oxygen gas), the extra oxygen molecule is easily passed off in chemical reactions known as oxidation. While ozone is known to irritate the lungs in high concentration, in specific medical concentrations, the oxidative power of ozone in chemical reactions creates what is known in the body as redox (reduction-oxidation) signaling molecules, which are molecules in the body that act as cellular signals based upon their oxidative state. Cytokines, nucleic acids, and enzymes all use oxidative (redox) state to perform and signal their functions in the body on the immune system, genetic system, and metabolism. These signals are what is thought to enable ozone's regenerative powers through the activation of the body' s own stem cells following ozone injection into non-healing tissue.

Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Therapy is one of the cutting edge tools we use at Hawaii Island Stem Cell Therapy and Regenerative Medicine. This therapy harnesses the inherent power of platelets, which are blood components found in the patient’s own blood. In the blood, platelets have two major functions; signaling adjacent cells to begin the healing process and to stop bleeding in recently damaged tissues. When the body is damaged in any way, platelets release growth factors into the surrounding tissue which then signal these tissues to flood the area with repair cells and healing nutrients. This effectively begins the process of repair and re-growth in damaged tissues. Hawaii Island Stem Cell Therapy and Regenerative Medicine uses the patient’s own blood- which is then centrifuged to separate blood cells from the platelets- resulting in a highly potent PRP. This PRP is then injected into very specific musculoskeletal areas under ultrasound guidance and using precision injection technique. The result is a higher level of healing than prior to the treatment due to the orchestration of an enhanced healing response vis a vis the growth factors in the platelets.

Allogeneic Allograft

An allogeneic allograft is regenerative tissue donated from another individual that is applied to diseased or chronically injured tissues in the recipient.

The FDA, under its regulation CFR 361, allows the use of donated human tissue in medicine without premarket review and approval if the tissue is minimally manipulated, for homologous use, and does not purport to contain a cellular signaling function.

The allogeneic allograft tissue we use at Hawaii Island Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Therapy exclusively meets guidelines for FDA exemption under CFR 361, since the donated tissue is designated as structural support tissue and is minimally manipulated prior to injection.

A full description of the allogeneic allograft products used at Hawaii Island Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Therapy can be found here: vittilabs.com

In our clinic, these products are frequently combined with allograft products or PRP (link here to allograft page and PRP page) so that full cell signaling function can be preserved.

The allogeneic allograft tissue that we use at Hawaii Island Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine is sourced from umbilical cord donated during live and healthy C-section births occurring only in the United States. All of our products come from a lab that is FDA-registered and CGMP-certified. In this process, all donors are screened according to accredited Human Tissue Bank standards and additionally screened to rule out any infectious diseases, including COVID vaccination status.

In both laboratory and small-scale clinical trials to date, these products have been shown to be uniquely helpful in the regeneration of chronically diseased tissues. These birth products are a purified portion of the umbilical cord, also known as Wharton’s Jelly, and although not intended to provide signaling effects due to FDA regulations, and while no claims can be made as to live cell activity, these products are generally thought to contain live Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs), exosomes (extracellular signaling vesicles), and Polypeptide Enriched Matrix (PEM).¹

MSCs are thought to exert their effects through paracrine signaling—that is, the release of signaling factors to communicate with surrounding cells and the cellular environment in favor of regeneration and repair. In large part, they mediate this signaling effect through exosomes, which are small spherical membrane structures released from mesenchymal stem cells into the extracellular space. These membranes contain signaling material, proteins, and mRNA, which can activate genes responsible for growth and repair in target tissue and help modulate the immune response to reduce inflammation. Additionally, the polypeptide enriched matrix (PEM), an extracellular component of Wharton’s Jelly, provides structural support and growth media, containing growth factors, peptides, and hyaluronic acid.

When used in this way, the biological materials are thought to:

Increase cell growth
Create new blood vessels and capillaries

References

AH Amol H Trivedi, et al. "The Categorization of Perinatal Derivatives for Orthopedic Applications." Biomedicines, 2024.
Contact Hawaii Island Stem Cell Therapy and Regenerative Medicine to schedule an appointment and to find out if stem cell therapy is the right solution for your back pain.