Stem cells for laminitis

[Horsingaround31]

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I came across this article today (http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/55321/thorn-song-gets-a-second-chance-at-life) about a vet in California using stem cells to treat laminitis. Not much science included in the article, but still interesting and a good story.

 

[ponio]

Stem cells derived from adipose tissue are often used to aid in healing for arthritis and soft tissue injuries in equine medicine. The vet that I worked for was a huge fan and used them whenever clients were willing to pay for them. If you are interested you should google vetstem. The website is pretty biased but has some interesting information too.

 

[Horsingaround31]

Will do -- thanks for the info! I will definitely check out that site. I talked to a few vets who were using submucosa from a pig's bladder, basically as a graft, to treat tendons and ligament injuries in horses. The submucosa grew new tissue instead of scar tissue. That was about six years ago and they were having pretty good success. I wonder if that was the precursor to stem cells?

 

[PM2009]

Stem cells are very big in my area as well as PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma) and very new juvenile cartilage techniques. A lot of times insurance will cover them for horse owners (only once but still...) and we've had really great results with stem cell and PRP. The juvenile cartilage studies are still in the developmental stages but so far they're blowing the other two out of the water.

One of my vets here at home has actually been splitting his time b/t here and Austrailia working on a huge laminitis study. It's definitely his passion and they're having some interesting results from several new techniques.

 

[PrimalMU]

Yep, we learned about Vetstem in my Molecular Medicine class. Besides equine medicine, it is being used to treat hip dysplasia in dogs. All the evidence suggests that treatment is "permanent" (in quotations because dogs don't live long enough to suggest permanence in humans).