While Friday the 13th may be bad luck for some, such was not the case for the U.S. stem cell industry. On Friday, April 13, the Texas Medical Board (TMB) approved the first set of regulations which will allow physicians to offer autologous adult stem cell therapies. And on Monday, April 16, the Wall Street Journal posted an Op Ed piece written by the former FDA commissioner in support of stem cell therapy. Read on to learn why these recent news items may just spell good news for the stem cell industry, and regen medicine. >> Continue reading Texas Medical Board and WSJ OpEd: Tipping Point for Stem Cell Industry

What are the most common sizes of breast implants used in breast augmentation?

To find out, we did an analysis of the last 125 cases of breast augmentation procedures performed by Dr. Rodriguez in our surgery center located in Baltimore, Maryland. So what styles and sizes of implants were most popular? Glad you asked! >> Continue reading Top 5 Breast Implant Sizes for Breast Augmentation

It is no secret to biotech investors that stem cell stocks suffered dramatic declines in 2011. To be more specific, they were taken out to the woodshed and beat to smithereens. Robin Young summarized that the market capitalization of all the public stem cell sectors declined by 25% in 2011 compared to the previous year. In 2011, total market cap of the entire publicly traded stem cell sector was only $ 3.4 Billion. Every single publicly traded stem cell stock declined in value, except for one company, Mesoblast (ASX: MBX).

At this year’s Stem Cell Summit in NY, Robin Young attributed the steep sector decline to ‘regulatory pushback’. That is code speak to mean that the FDA reversed some of the previous favorable decisions from the past. In one example, an allograph product fom Allosource was already approved, but now the FDA was reclassifying the product from tissue to drug causing major upheaval in the industry.

However, the good news is that 2011 is now over! The thinking is that the stem cell space is emerging from the ‘valley of death’, or the ‘trough of disillusionment’. Find out what the next mind-blowing application in stem cell therapy is and what companies are projected to lead the marketplace… >> Continue reading 2012 NYC Stem Cell Summit: It's Darkest Before the Dawn

One of the biggest concerns patients have with any surgery is the amount of pain they will have to endure afterwards. This is especially true in cases of breast augmentation and other cosmetic surgery procedures since the patient is undergoing elective surgery and wants the best experience possible.

Pain itself can have a negative impact following surgery. In fact, it’s the main cause for readmission to a hospital after cosmetic surgery. When patients are in pain, they tend to breathe in short, shallow gasps which results in poor oxygen delivery tot he tissues that, in turn, affects healing. Besides, when the lungs don’t fully expand, patients are more prone to additional complications such as pneumonia.

To prevent this, patients need pain relief. The traditional way is pain pills but there’s a better, less nauseating method for treating post-op pain… >> Continue reading Got Pain? How to Reduce Pain after Breast Augmentation

Several years ago we became fascinated with the potential of adipose stem cells for both cosmetic and medical purposes. However, we soon discovered that nothing in the written FDA guidelines specifically addressed the use of autologous adipose stem cells. Thus began our journey for an answer. In June 2009, we sent a letter to the FDA asking for a position statement on adipose stem cells. Our request focused specifically on autologous, freshly isolated, adipose stem cells for use in reconstruction. These stem cells are from your own fat, for your own usage, and not culture expanded in a lab.

After a very long wait, we recently received a written response from the FDA. First, a little bit of background for any stem cell newbies…. >> Continue reading FDA: Stem Cells from Your Own Fat are a Drug

There have been several comments recently on one of my previous blog posts about tummy tuck swelling. While swelling is a definite concern, it’s only one of the possible complications following abdominoplasty. Other complications can include infection, wound separation, and fluid collections. Be sure to discuss these things with your plastic surgeon prior to your surgery. >> Continue reading Tummy Tuck Complications - Infection, Wound Separation, Seroma, Hematoma

Nearly everyone has heard of Groupon, the coupon site for daily deals. If you are on the receiving end as a consumer, it can be a great way to get some great deals. For over a year we have been seeing other plastic surgeons and dermatologists sell Botox® at huge discounts. Not wanting to be outdone by our competitors, we decided to explore our options for selling facial injectables such as Botox, Restylane, Juvederm and Sculptra via Groupon. Find out why we won’t be offering Botox discounts via Groupon. >> Continue reading Groupon Daily Deals for Botox - Violation of State Regulations?

Unless you are a science major, understanding the topic of stem cells can be daunting. The mainstream media has provided some good articles on the topic of Stem Cells, but there is a lot of misleading information out there.

Often times mainstream media lumps all stem cells into one category to imply that all therapies are a decade away and that very little clinical data exists. That is simply not categorically true. In an effort to give you a mile high view of the stem cell world, we made a graphic, Stem Cell Types – Debunking Misconceptions. >> Continue reading Adult, Embryonic, and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells - Who's ready for prime time?

President Obama ordered federal agencies, such as the FDA, to search their books and strike any overburdensome regulations. In June, the FDA quietly posted a request for comments to any existing regulations that are burdensome or outdated by technology. We passed the link on to Professor Mary Chirba who then submitted comments to the FDA regarding autologous stem cell therapies. She has graciously given us permission to post her comments here on our blog. >> Continue reading FDA Stem Cell Regulation and the English Language: switched at birth?

Fat grafting, also known as fat transfers or fat injections, is a plastic surgery procedure which removes fat from unwanted areas of your body, carefully processes the fat, and then reinjects your own adipose fat tissue where more volume is desired. Fat injections can help rejuvenate your face, your buttocks, your hands, or your breasts. Fat injections are also being used in breast reconstruction surgery. Fat grafting will restore volume to the breast and can be performed with or without an implant.

Lately we have seen some plastic surgery blogs expressing concern regarding how fat injections to the breast affect mammograms. We feel that both sides of the story are not being told, so we would like to address that here. >> Continue reading Fat Grafting to the Breast - Will It Affect Mammograms?

We attended Robin Young’s 6th annual Stem Cell Summit which was held this year on March 1st in New York City. Also in attendance were scores of public and private stem cell companies. Presentations included 21 adult stem cell companies, 3 embryonic companies, 7 device/instrumentation companies, and a panel of medical experts discussing Spinal Cord Injury. Each company gave a 10 to 15 minute presentation but we most enjoyed Dr. Arnold Caplan’s keynote address. Not only is he well known in academic circles, but he is no stranger to the biotech financial community, as he was the founder of Osiris Therapeutics (Nasdaq: OSIR), a publicly traded cell therapy company. Here are some highlights we took away from Caplan’s keynote speech entitled, The State of MSC’s in 2011. If you are interested in stem cells from adipose tissue, you don’t want to miss this! >> Continue reading Stem Cell Summit: Adipose Tissue has more Stem Cells than Bone Marrow

A reader of our blog posed a very interesting question having to do with stem cell activation. Briefly put,

“why do you need to inject stem cells into an area if the normal tissues in that area already have some stem cells present?”–Charles

To understand why, we will talk about two concepts with adipose derived stem cells: the stem cell niche, and stem cell activation . Adipose stem cells are stem cells that are derived from your own fat tissue.

The Stem Cell Niche

Stem cells usually exist in a low grade resting state in a controlled environment called a niche. The niche contains mesenchymal stem cells, also known as MSCs. The mesenchymal stem cell niche is usually located in the blood vessel wall itself.

The status quo for a niche is not full blown stem cell activity, but a level of activity finely attuned to its surroundings. These cells like to keep a stable environment  (on the vessels) within the niche. They will only respond in a very specific way, to certain kinds of stimuli.

In a chronic disease state such as scar tissue or aged skin, the stem cells present in that tissue are responding in many small and measured ways to whatever is happening in the tissue. Stem Cells are trying to maintain balanced conditions, this is called homeostasis. There are no big changes, just a low-grade adaptation to aging or scar process. This is why the stem cells in the local tissue are not doing what you would like them to do. To get a stem cell to do what you want it to do, something else needs to happen. It needs to get activated. >> Continue reading Stem Cell Niches, Stem Cell Activation, and Superman

As if you didn’t know it already–big, prominent, perky butts are in! The February issue of Juicy Magazine featured a story on Brazilian Butt Lifts. Our own Dr. Rodriguez was interviewed for the story and is quoted with a pink shout out next to Kim Kardashian!

Dr. Rodriguez specializes in the Brazilian Butt Lift, a type of butt augmentation… >> Continue reading Juicy Magazine Features Dr. Rodriguez in Bootylicious Article

2010 ushered in the new promising decade for the use of adipose stem cells. Stem cells from your own autologous fat, also known as adipose stem cells, have the power to rejuvenate tissue, heal wounds, and cure diseases.

Taking the pulse at the various Stem Cell conferences around the country in 2010, we found that more clinical researchers are gravitating to adipose tissue as a source of stem cells. Bone marrow has historically been the default source of adult stem cells for researchers. Likewise, the volume of peer reviewed publications and research papers attesting to fat as an abundant source of stem cells has seen a tremendous increase in the past year.

So what’s in store for 2011? Fat is phat again! >> Continue reading Plastic Surgery Predictions 2011: Fat Stem Cells 2.0

New evidence points to an improvement in vascularity and blood flow when stem cells are more concentrated in the fat to be transplanted. For therapeutic approaches, reproducible protocols of adipose-derived stem cells isolation and a large amount of cells are necessary, in order to respond to the increasing demand. Therefore, to practically understand what happens when adipose tissue is manipulated in the operating room, we studied the most common methods of fat processing employed by most plastic surgeons, in order to see which method yields the highest quantity of stem cells. >> Continue reading Centrifugation of Fat Tissue Yields More Stem Cells than Originally Thought