Stem Cell Therapy for Liver Cirrhosis

Stem Cell Therapy for Liver Cirrhosis Abroad

Liver Cirrhosis is a disease which develops when scar tissue replaces normal, healthy tissue in the liver. This happens when the healthy cells are damaged over a long period of time, usually many years. The scar tissue makes the liver lumpy and hard, making it difficult for the blood to get through portal vein into the liver. After a while the organ will start to fail. When blood backs up into the portal vein, it can get into your spleen and cause trouble in that organ, too.

Symptoms of Liver Cirrhosis

• Fatigue
• Bleeding easily
• Bruising easily
• Itchy skin
• Yellow discoloration in the skin and eyes (jaundice)
• Fluid accumulation in your abdomen (ascites)
• Loss of appetite
• Nausea
• Swelling in your legs
• Weight loss
• Confusion, drowsiness and slurred speech (hepatic encephalopathy)
• Spiderlike blood vessels on your skin
• Redness in the palms of the hands
• Testicular atrophy in men
• Breast enlargement in men

Causes of Liver Cirrhosis

• Chronic alcohol abuse
• Chronic viral hepatitis (hepatitis B and C)
• Fat accumulating in the liver (nonalcoholic fatty liver disease)

Other possible causes include:

• Iron buildup in the body (hemochromatosis)
• Cystic fibrosis
• Copper accumulated in the liver (Wilson's disease)
• Poorly formed bile ducts (biliary atresia)
• Inherited disorders of sugar metabolism (galactosemia or glycogen storage disease)
• Genetic digestive disorder (Alagille syndrome)
• Liver disease caused by your body's immune system (autoimmune hepatitis)
• Destruction of the bile ducts (primary biliary cirrhosis)
• Hardening and scarring of the bile ducts (primary sclerosing cholangitis)
• Infection such schistosomiasis
• Medications such as methotrexate

Stem Cell Therapy for Liver Cirrhosis

Mesenchymal stem cells are among the most 'multipotent' stem cells that remain in our bodies after birth. This means that they are still able to make a variety of different cell types. Many trials have shown that patients with liver cirrhosis have benefitted from autologous adipose tissue derived mesenchymal stem cells.

Also, embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells might be used to make new hepatocytes in the laboratory for patients whose liver can no longer regenerate. However, there are still a number of fundamental questions that must be answered before this kind of treatment can be deployed clinically.

Benefits of Stem Cell Therapy for Liver Cirrhosis

• Side effects and rejection free (use the patient's very own stem cells from their abdomen)
• Avoidance of any allergic and immune reactions (own cells suit chromosomal and genetic structure)
• Does not require general anesthesia
• No risk of contamination by transmissible diseases
• No oncological complication as adult stem cells in the comparison with embryonic cells are rather mature
• Small quantity of fat tissue is needed (that is why after activation process the stem cells can be at once injected to patient without necessity of growing them on substances. Embryonic stem cells are grown during several months)
• The period of time between getting lipoaspirate and injection of the activated stem cells is only a few hours
• Adipose tissue stem cells are easily accessible and yielding up to ten times more stem cells than patien's bone marrow

Cost

Whilst clinical trials for stem cell therapies are underway in the United States, the FDA has not yet approved stem cell treatments. However, the prospective costs of stem cell therapies range between $10,000 and $50,000, depending on the type of stem cell, frequency of injections, and length of therapy.

Facilities around the world, including those found in Mexico, Europe, and Southeast Asia are able to offer stem cell therapies, including umbilical cord derived stem cells, for an average of about $8,000 a vial, with prices decreasing as the number of vials needed increases.

Doctors

Many facilities worldwide offer stem cell therapy, but it's important to locate accredited and experienced physicians who deal with stem cell treatments. Doctors specializing in spine degenerative disease should be trained, certified and accredited through country of origin or international accreditation and certification boards and should also belong to organizations or associations of their specialty.

Check references and resources to determine whether physicians or specialists are trained, experienced and accredited with stem cell therapy treatments with his or her country of origin and that facilities provide state-of the art technology and equipment and have a well maintained, trained and educated staff.

For more information about Stem Cell Therapy for Liver Cirrhosis and the best clinics offering the procedure, please contact us!