Surgeons restored a South Dakota man's wrist cartilage using stem cells derived from his own fat tissue, according to a CNN report.
The patient, Bill Marlette, lost his arm as a teenager. Despite the injury, Mr. Marlette maintained an active lifestyle, eventually developing cysts and holes in the bones of his remaining wrist due to overexertion. Following his physician's recommendation, Mr. Marlette traveled to Munich, Germany in August 2016 to undergo stem cell treatment.
Here are five things to know about the procedure and Mr. Marlette's recovery.
1. Robert Van Demark, MD, of Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Sanford Health, recommended the treatment after traveling with other Sanford physicians to one of Eckhard Alt's, MD, PhD, research laboratories in Munich. Dr. Alt was the first to use fat tissue as a resource for stem cells, according to comments made by a Sanford physician cited in the report.
2. Dr. Alt reportedly recognized stem cells derived from fat were particularly apt to become cartilage or bone, whereas stem cells from bone marrow often develop into blood or immune cells.
3. After receiving a single treatment at the Munich clinic, Mr. Marlette claims he has experienced significant relief.
"We see [from an MRI scan] that those cysts are gone, the bone has restructured, the inflammation is gone and he formed ... new cartilage," said Dr. Alt, according to CNN.
4. While the treatment has been approved by the European equivalent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — the European Medicines Agency — the treatment has yet to be approved in the U.S.
5. Through a partnership with Sanford, Dr. Alt is working to launch a clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of using fat stem cells to treat rotator cuff injuries. The trial is the first of its kind to garner FDA approval.
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