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Category Archives: Stem Cell Therapy

‘Adequate guidelines for stem cell industry’

Posted: November 2, 2012 at 4:41 am

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 29): The Health Ministry has no intention of introducing a Stem Cell Act as the current guidelines are believed to be sufficient to regulate the research being carried out in this growing field.

Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said his ministry has taken the lead to regulate this field by producing four guidelines that provide framework for researchers, clinicians and companies involved in research, clinical trials as well as manufacturing of stem cells.

These four guidelines and standards cover haemopoietic stem cell therapy; cord blood banking and transplantation; stem cell transplantation; and stem cell research and therapy.

Liow stressed that these guidelines, which were introduced in December 2006, with a second edition in July 2009, serve as standards to which practitioners and scientists must abide to in order to ensure no harm is done to the patient.

As such, he said there was no need to table a Stem Cell Bill in Parliament to monitor research and transplants in this field.

Liow said the ministry set up a National Sub-Committee for Ethics in Stem Cell Research and Therapy (NSCERT) as an oversight body for all stem cell research in the country, and religious authorities were consulted while drafting the guidelines.

When asked, Liow said that a fatwa was issued by National Fatwa Council to allow researchers to use the excess embryos, produced through IVF, that have been stored by Muslim couples for research.

In addition, all the stem cell therapy must be tested before use on human body.

Liow also gave some statistics on stem cell transplants in the country.

In 2009, a total of 213 haemopoietic stem cell transplants were performed and registered in this country, with 87.7% performed in public or university hospitals. The Ampang Hospital is the largest centre for this type of transplant and currently, there are 11 such centres in Malaysia.

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'Adequate guidelines for stem cell industry'

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Stem cell face lift: Does it work?

Posted: November 2, 2012 at 4:41 am

Doctors and researchers have long said that stem cell therapy has the potential to change the face of human disease. But what if stem cells could be used to reverse the aging process as well?

Plastic surgeons say they can use stem cells to make women look years younger without the pain of an invasive surgery.

"I lost weight, loss of volume in face, I looked gaunt and I said, so I said, 'okay what do we do to fix this?'" said Sarah, a patient.

The fix for this was a stem-cell face lift. Dr. Steve Szczerba of Chicago Aesthetic Surgery Institute recommended that Sarah undergo a procedure, where he'd use her own adult stem cells to turn back the clock.

"A stem cell facelift is rejuvenating the face using grafted fat. Grafted fat has stem cells in it," Dr. Szczerba explains.

Grafted fat is transferred fat. Dr. Szczerba typically gets it from the patient's abdomen or inner thigh during liposuction.

"During that process of liposuction, we save the fat and take the fat and prepare it for grafting by removing the fluid. And the stem cells along with other grafted fat cells are injected into the face," says Dr. Szczerba.

He says it's not simply a fat transfer. Dr. Szcerba believes the stem cells, which are specialized cells that self renew, are actually working to make collagen and rejuvenate the skin.

"You can actually see the surface of the skin change," says the doctor. "Similar to that a chemical peel or a laser peel accomplishes in order to see change in your cheek area."

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Stem cell face lift: Does it work?