Sam the Border Collie
Dog Receives Stem Cell Therapy for Arthritis – Sam, a 12 year old border collie and champion show dog from Memphis, recently received the first same-day stem cell therapy for dogs in the state of Georgia. The stem cell therapy was performed in an effort to relieve Sam’s pain and inflammation that he suffers due to arthritis.
The stem cell therapy procedure, which cost about $3000, involved harvesting stem cells from Sam’s own fat, processing them, and then injecting them back into his arthritic joints. Stem cells take on the functions of other cells in the body, and have the capacity to rebuild and repair diseased or damaged tissue. In this case, the stem cells are intended to interrupt the inflammatory cascade in Sam’s joints, thereby taking away the pain.
The “same-day” nature of the dog’s stem cell therapy is important, as in the past the procedure would have sent the cells to a lab in California for processing, taking 3 to 5 days. This amount of time would surely kill a number of the stem cells, and cause other stem cells to lose their effectiveness.
The Stem cell therapy for arthritis performed on Sam is expected to show results in a few weeks. The obvious hope with stem cell therapy such as this, is its tremendous promise with similar conditions like arthritis in humans.
Full story and video from Fox 5 in Atlanta
Stem Cell Therapy for Arthritis in Dogs
