what are Stem Cells?
An unspecialized cell characterized by the ability to self-renew by mitosis while in undifferentiated state, and the capacity to give rise to various differentiated cell types by cell differentiation.
Introduction
Stem cells come from two main sources: embryos or adult tissues. Embryonic stem cells can give rise to virtually any cell type in the body, but they are controversial because conventional procedures for obtaining them involve the destruction of an embryo. Adult stem cells, such as those found in bone marrow, do not pose the same ethical concerns, but they have limited powers and collecting them can require invasive procedures.
Menstrual stem cells could turn out to be happy medium between embryonic and adult stem cells, providing an ethically acceptable alternative that is readily accessible and appears to give rise to most of the major tissue types in the body.
LifeCell introduced the menstrual blood banking in India after entering into a collaboration with Cryo-Cell International, who owns the patent for this technology. Offering this service in other countries under the brand '' C'elle ''.
This technology was first launched in US in 2007. With this launch LifeCell has made this technology available in all its 70 centers across India and will be offering their services in Dubai and Sri Lanka as well in the coming two years.
To investigate Menstrual Stem Cells, they collected a small amount of menstrual blood from healthy women while they were menstruating. The researches hit pay dirt, isolating a new type of adult stem cell.
Every month during a woman's menstrual period the uterine lining-endometrium is shed along with the extra blood and tissues. This lining of the uterus contains a large number of mesenchymal stem cell and several thousand fold high concentartion of stem cell growth factors. These cells from the endometrium have unique
properties and characteristics similar to both bone marrow and embryonic stem cells.
Untill now, menstrual blood has been discarded as unsanitary waste. However, recent research has demonstrated that these cells multiply rapidly and can differentiate into many other types of cells such as Neural, Cardiac, Bone, Fat, Brain, Lung, Liver, Pancreas and possibly others - than other adult stem cells, Demonstrating great potential for cell therapy.
The menstrual blood derived mesenchymal stem cells also potentially overcome the problem of immune rejection in female patients, as they seem to have an immune system-suppressing effect that could enable them to be tranplanted into other people also without rejection.
Although menstrual stem cell technology has not yet been utilised to date in human therapies, the collective body of ongoing research may potentially change the types of therapies used to diagnose or treat a host of significant medical conditions in the future affecting hundreds of millions worldwide like Alzheimer's disease, Atherosclerosis, Cirrhosis of liver, Diabetes, Heart disease, Inflammatory bowel disease, Multiple sclerosis, Osteoarthritis, Parkinson's disease, Rheumatoid arthritis, Lou Gehrig's disease or Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and many others.
The goal of mesenchymal cell therapy is to treat diseases of non-haematopoietic tissues in an analogous fashion to treating leukaemia with haematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
Compared with the stem cells from other sources, such as bone marrow and cord blood, [menstrual stem cells] are easier to collect, do not cause any harm or pain to the donor and can be collected for more than 35 years, from 12 years old to 47 years.
Collection Procedure
LifeCell Femme is the first and only menstrual blood stem cell banking services in india. The collection process for menstrual blood is painless and hassle free. The collection can be done at the privacy and convenience of home using a 'Menstrual Cup'- A conical shaped medical grade silicon cup is inserted into vagina, when women have a greater flow of menstrual blood, which can collect up to 30ml of menstrual blood.
The menstrual cup is a reusable product, approved by US FDA and is used as an alternative to sanitary napkin or tampon globally.
Collection Procedure(video)
Storage procedure
Once collected the menstrual blood stem cells are dispatched to LifeCell's state of the art laboratory facility at chennai for processing. After processing the stem cells are harvested and the menstrual stem cells are frozen in liquid nitrogen storage container for cryogenic preservation at sub-zero minus 196 degree centigrade. This procedure will enable the stem cells to retain its potency and viability for indefinite period of time. The stored sample can be retrieved at any point of time with no additional cost.
Cost of Storage
LifeCell Femme will be available at a cost of just Rs.29,900 during the first year under the annual storage plan. The customer needs to pay only an annual storage fee of Rs.1,500 for every subsequent year for as many years as they desire to preserve their menstrual blood stem cells. One-time payment options are also available and this can be subscribed with a low EMI of just Rs.4,200 per month for 24 months for storage of stem cells up to the age of 60 without any additional interim costs.
" In India, there is lot of myths and taboo associated with menstrual blood and our biggest challenge will be to get people to accept and overcome such traditional setbacks and myths. Considering the strong scientific foundation of this service and impressive clinical progress of mesenchymal stem cell research and therapy, I believe that this service will appeal to thousands of women in the country who desire to secure their future health".
Contains of Kit Box
Launch of Life Cell Femme
Bollywood actress Lisa Ray, who just won the battle with Cancer and recovered from deadly disease, was present at launch of Life Cell Femme - Menstrual Blood Stem Cell Banking.
An unspecialized cell characterized by the ability to self-renew by mitosis while in undifferentiated state, and the capacity to give rise to various differentiated cell types by cell differentiation.
Introduction
Stem cells come from two main sources: embryos or adult tissues. Embryonic stem cells can give rise to virtually any cell type in the body, but they are controversial because conventional procedures for obtaining them involve the destruction of an embryo. Adult stem cells, such as those found in bone marrow, do not pose the same ethical concerns, but they have limited powers and collecting them can require invasive procedures.
Menstrual stem cells could turn out to be happy medium between embryonic and adult stem cells, providing an ethically acceptable alternative that is readily accessible and appears to give rise to most of the major tissue types in the body.
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| Menstrual stem cell |
Advantages Of Menstrual Blood Stem Cells
- Menstrual blood is a rich source of mesenchymal stem cells that have the future potential for giving rise to fat, cartilage, bone and skeletal muscle cells, and thus may potentially be used for regenerative stem cell therapy in several disorders.
- Proliferative Properties : Menstrual blood stem cells from the menstrual blood are more proliferative and multiply for longer duration without damages to DNA; Hence larger numbers can be obtained on expansion from small initial numbers.
- Multiple Dosages : Laboratory techniques have now been well developed that allow obtaining unlimited numbers of purified mesenchymal stem cells and thereby making available these valuable stem cells for therapeutic use for more than once.
- Approaching regulatory approval : Menstrual blood stem cells are now being used in over 100 clinical trials, including two phase 3 clinical trials, both of which have been fast-tracked by the FDA for commercialization.
- Ease in Administration : Unlike other cell therapies these cells are administered through a standard 4 line like many of the other drugs that are given to patients.
- Safety : These stem cells are well tolerated, with no patient deaths, no toxicity or any adverse side effects reported, thus providing for large scale clinical use.
- Pain : Bone marrow donation is an invasive & painful procedure while menstrual blood extraction is quick, painless and harmless too.
LifeCell introduced the menstrual blood banking in India after entering into a collaboration with Cryo-Cell International, who owns the patent for this technology. Offering this service in other countries under the brand '' C'elle ''.
This technology was first launched in US in 2007. With this launch LifeCell has made this technology available in all its 70 centers across India and will be offering their services in Dubai and Sri Lanka as well in the coming two years.
To investigate Menstrual Stem Cells, they collected a small amount of menstrual blood from healthy women while they were menstruating. The researches hit pay dirt, isolating a new type of adult stem cell.
Every month during a woman's menstrual period the uterine lining-endometrium is shed along with the extra blood and tissues. This lining of the uterus contains a large number of mesenchymal stem cell and several thousand fold high concentartion of stem cell growth factors. These cells from the endometrium have unique
properties and characteristics similar to both bone marrow and embryonic stem cells.
Untill now, menstrual blood has been discarded as unsanitary waste. However, recent research has demonstrated that these cells multiply rapidly and can differentiate into many other types of cells such as Neural, Cardiac, Bone, Fat, Brain, Lung, Liver, Pancreas and possibly others - than other adult stem cells, Demonstrating great potential for cell therapy.
The menstrual blood derived mesenchymal stem cells also potentially overcome the problem of immune rejection in female patients, as they seem to have an immune system-suppressing effect that could enable them to be tranplanted into other people also without rejection.
Although menstrual stem cell technology has not yet been utilised to date in human therapies, the collective body of ongoing research may potentially change the types of therapies used to diagnose or treat a host of significant medical conditions in the future affecting hundreds of millions worldwide like Alzheimer's disease, Atherosclerosis, Cirrhosis of liver, Diabetes, Heart disease, Inflammatory bowel disease, Multiple sclerosis, Osteoarthritis, Parkinson's disease, Rheumatoid arthritis, Lou Gehrig's disease or Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and many others.
The goal of mesenchymal cell therapy is to treat diseases of non-haematopoietic tissues in an analogous fashion to treating leukaemia with haematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
''This is not only limited to mere theory. Stem cells harvested from menstrual blood has been successfully differentiated into 'Neural cells' in vitro (in lab). When these cells are put into experiment animals that had a 'Stroke', then these stem cells can reduce behavioral disturbances in rats affected by stroke''.
Experiments performed at the Keio University school of medicine have succeeded in growing sheets of heart muscle from connective tissue cells harvested from menstrual blood when it comes to growing heart muscle, however, the connective tissue cells in menstrual blood have a success rate 100 times higher than the 0.2-0.3 percent for stem cells taken from human bone marrow.Donor
Compared with the stem cells from other sources, such as bone marrow and cord blood, [menstrual stem cells] are easier to collect, do not cause any harm or pain to the donor and can be collected for more than 35 years, from 12 years old to 47 years.
Collection Procedure
LifeCell Femme is the first and only menstrual blood stem cell banking services in india. The collection process for menstrual blood is painless and hassle free. The collection can be done at the privacy and convenience of home using a 'Menstrual Cup'- A conical shaped medical grade silicon cup is inserted into vagina, when women have a greater flow of menstrual blood, which can collect up to 30ml of menstrual blood.
The menstrual cup is a reusable product, approved by US FDA and is used as an alternative to sanitary napkin or tampon globally.
 |
| Menstrual silicon Cap |
Collection Procedure(video)
Storage procedure
Once collected the menstrual blood stem cells are dispatched to LifeCell's state of the art laboratory facility at chennai for processing. After processing the stem cells are harvested and the menstrual stem cells are frozen in liquid nitrogen storage container for cryogenic preservation at sub-zero minus 196 degree centigrade. This procedure will enable the stem cells to retain its potency and viability for indefinite period of time. The stored sample can be retrieved at any point of time with no additional cost.
Cost of Storage
LifeCell Femme will be available at a cost of just Rs.29,900 during the first year under the annual storage plan. The customer needs to pay only an annual storage fee of Rs.1,500 for every subsequent year for as many years as they desire to preserve their menstrual blood stem cells. One-time payment options are also available and this can be subscribed with a low EMI of just Rs.4,200 per month for 24 months for storage of stem cells up to the age of 60 without any additional interim costs.
" In India, there is lot of myths and taboo associated with menstrual blood and our biggest challenge will be to get people to accept and overcome such traditional setbacks and myths. Considering the strong scientific foundation of this service and impressive clinical progress of mesenchymal stem cell research and therapy, I believe that this service will appeal to thousands of women in the country who desire to secure their future health".
Contains of Kit Box
Testimonials
Launch of Life Cell Femme
Bollywood actress Lisa Ray, who just won the battle with Cancer and recovered from deadly disease, was present at launch of Life Cell Femme - Menstrual Blood Stem Cell Banking.
