Mesenchyme: Little Known Rejuvenating Healer
by James Wilson, ND PhD DC and Carolyn McLuskie
Rejuvenate: Make young or as if young again
(Concise Oxford Dictionary).
A unique and unusual substance called mesenchyme has arrived on the American
market with little notice or fanfare. However, you will be hearing a lot
about it in the years to come. Mesenchyme will revolutionize the way we
handle health problems because of its astonishing and well-documented ability
to repair and rejuvenate damaged cells and tissues.
Mesenchyme is undifferentiated embryonic connective tissue, the true mother
lode of cell growth and cell regeneration. Mesenchymal cells develop during
the early embryonic stages of mammalian gestation and are the source material
from which most of the mammalian body's organs and tissues are made - everything
from bones, muscles, and connective tissue to the central nervous system. What
is extraordinary about mesenchyme in that when it is ingested it migrates to
the area of greatest injury in the body. Once there, it aligns itself with
the damaged cells and/or tissues, becomes identical to them, and then starts
replicating.
Regenerates Damaged Cells
The result is regeneration or replacement of the damaged cells. The implications
for speedy and full recovery from everything from broken bones to herniated
discs are enormous. We now have the potential to create healing where there
was previously no hope of recovery. Later in this article, you will read
how one of the authors restored severely herniated discs that should have
required surgical. fusion, as well as greatly accelerated recovery from
a ruptured Achilles tendon.
Interestingly, the mechanism for organ formation from mesenchymal cells is
still present in some adult animal species. For example, it is the presence
of mesenchymal cells that allows a salamander to regenerate its tail if cut
off. In the human adult, the only mechanism where these cells normally function
is in the healing of wounds.
The mesenchyme available on the US market is made from porcine embryonic
mesenchymal cells. Because mesenchyme is, by definition,
undifferentiated fetal cellular material, it has not yet developed
immune markers.
It is
therefore accepted by the human host without provoking an attack
by the immune system and can freely work its magic on any number
of physical injuries
and traumas.
Mesenchyme has the ability to migrate to any tissue in need of repair
and, once at the site, to take on the characteristics of the healthy cell
it associates with. When mesenchyme is next to cartilage, it becomes cartilage
and replaces or repairs damaged cartilage. This is true for organ tissues
too; for example, when it is next to kidney, mesenchyme becomes kidney.
If one has damaged cells from a broken bone, mesenchyme associates itself
with the wounded tissue, assumes the specific characteristics of that type
of bone, and begins to repair the damaged tissue and create new bone cells.
It sounds incredible, but much research has verified this unique action.
Thus, mesenchyme has great potential in regenerating diseased or injured
tissues of all kinds.
The use of mesenchyme as a therapeutic substance arises from experiments
conducted early in the 20th century by Dr. Alexis Carrel, 1912 Nobel Laureate
in Biology, who demonstrated that organic tissues could be regenerated
in vitro by the addition of fresh younger cells to the culture medium.
In the 1930s, the Swiss endocrinologist Dr. Paul Niehans developed a technique
for extracting cells from animals and injecting them into his patients
to compensate for their bodies' deficiencies. One of the types of cells
he found most beneficial was mesenchyme.
Mesenchyme, used in conjunction with other whole cells and cellular extracts,
was popular in Europe during the1960s and 1970s. Many well-known celebrities
and politicians visited reputable clinics and spas, including Dr. Niehans'
Clinique La Prairie in Clarens, Switzerland, to receive live cell therapy.
Notables such as Charles de Gaulle, Charlie Chaplin, and Sir Winston Churchill
were just a few of the wealthy, powerful, and famous figures of the last
century who went to these spas for live cell therapy, which included mesenchyme
as a basic part of the rejuvenation process.
What makes mesenchyme so unique, special, and efficient is the fact that
it is composed of multipotential cells, also known as mesenchymal stem
cells, which have the ability to become almost any kind of tissue or organ.
Embryologically, all connective and supportive tissues arise from mesenchymal
cells. The versatility of these pleuripotetial cells allows them to form
cartilage, bone, muscle, connective tissue, and organ tissue.
In all mammals mesenchyme eventually differentiates into three embryonic
tissues - the endoderm, the mesoderm, and the ectoderm. During embryonic
development, these three primitive cell types differentiate into all the
body's organs and tissues. The endoderm forms the linings of the digestive
and respiratory tracts. The mesoderm develops into muscle, connective tissues,
bone, and blood vessels. The ectoderm differentiates into the epidermis
and the nervous system. A portion of the mesenchyme remains in the placenta
and the yolk sac surrounding the embryo in the fetus. It is this mesenchyme
that is carefully separated to become the commercially available product.
Versatile Differentiation
Mesenchymal cells migrate and differentiate in many different ways. They
may become fibroblasts (connective tissue cells that manufacture collagen),
chondroblasts (a type of differentiated fibroblast that becomes cartilage),
or osteoblasts (bone forming cells). Mesenchyme is most versatile and effective
as a therapeutic agent when it contains cells as undifferentiated as possible
and is derived from all the mesenchymal layers (endoderm, ectoderm, and
mesoderm). Most mesenchyme used for commercial purposes is harvested from
the tissue surrounding the placenta between the 50th and the 150th day
of fetal development.
Mesenchyme's uncanny capacity for seeking out and restoring damaged tissues
and cells of any kind makes it invaluable in illnesses where there is significant
cell damage and a need for repair. Mesenchyme speeds healing, decreases scar
tissue formation, decreases complications of healing, and heals beyond what
medical professionals typically think is possible.
Severely Herniated Discs
A case in point: Six years ago, writer McLuskie was involved in a car
accident which left her with three severely herniated discs in her neck,
C5-6, C6-7, and C7-T. Within a year of the accident, the pain was so severe
that her employer allowed her to work from home three days a week. She
was unable to sit upright for more than 1/2 hour at a time due to the excruciating
pain. She consulted three orthopedic surgeons, all of whom delivered the
same chilling prognosis - the discs were deteriorating; there was no recourse
but spinal fusion surgery; and after that the degeneration would continue.
At least they were honest!
Soon after this news, Ms. McLuskie interviewed Dr. James Wilson on the subject
of live cell therapy. Coincidentally, the FDA had just approved mesenchyme
as a dietary supplement. On hearing how a woman scheduled for hip surgery had
successfully used live cell therapy to restore the destroyed cartilage, avoid
surgery, and walk again, Ms. McLuskie was galvanized. Under Dr. Wilson's supervision,
she began using the same protocol, a combination of shark cartilage and mesenchyme,
taken sublingually.
Pain-free with Increased Disc Height
Part of her therapy involved neck traction for 20 minutes twice daily,
to provide room for the new disc tissue to grow. And grow it did. After
four months, Ms. McLuskie was pain-free and has been pain-free ever since.
A recent x-ray of her neck, when compared to one taken after the accident,
showed graphic proof that there was indeed increased disc height between
her formerly herniated cervical vertebrae. Regaining disc height of a herniated
disc lies outside the realm of possibility of a typical medical protocol.
In August 1999, Ms. McLuskie ruptured her left Achilles tendon during
a tennis match. The full rupture was surgically reattached and she was
in a knee-high cast for eight weeks. During this time, she took mesenchyme
twice daily to restore the torn tendon. After finding out that mesenchyme
is 10 times more potent when injected, Ms. McLuskie overcame her fear of
needles and self-administered the twice-daily subcutaneous injections.
It paid off. When the cast was removed, Ms. McLuskie's orthopedic surgeon
was visibly shocked at the extent of her healing, as she was able to fully
flex her foot. Normally an ankle or foot immobilized for eight weeks has
a very limited range of motion and is very stiff, weak, and inflexible
when the cast is removed. It typically takes from several weeks to several
months for the ankle to regain its full range of motion, flexibility and
strength. The physician was so taken aback by the flexibility of the ankle
that he checked her non-injured foot to be sure that she had normal flexion,
and not hyperfiexion.
Unique Healing Modality
As this unique healing modality becomes better known, as more clinical
research on mesenchyme is completed, it is inevitable that more and more
doctors will familiarize themselves with its use. Then we will see mesenchyme
being used by physicians who have the patients best interest at heart.
Meanwhile, mesenchyme continues to restore lives. In another case, Dr.
Wilson recommended mesenchyme therapy in conjunction with liquid shark
cartilage to a professional snowboarder who had gone over a 60-foot cliff
and crushed two intervertebral discs in his lower tack - T11- 12 and T12-Ll.
The presiding physician had told him it was doubtful he would ever walk
again. After eight weeks of taking mesenchyme and shark cartilage the young
man was not only walking, he was actively working at light physical labor,
lifting crates.
The research on mesenchyme provides an interesting look at the broad-based
medical applications in store for this incredible substance. Scientists
have been closely examining mesenchyme's intriguing qualities for some
time. Mesenchyme's potential to literally become any type of tissue (that
multipotentiality again) has been described and elucidated in several research
studies.
A large part of the reason mesenchyme is commercially available is that
it can be successfully harvested and cryopreserved (flash-frozen), then
thawed with no loss of cellular action. Researchers at Osiris Therapeutics
in Baltimore, Maryland extracted mesenchymal stem cells from normal human
bone marrow and subjected them to cryopreservation. They found that fast
freezing and subsequent thawing of mesenchyme had no effect on its ability
to regenerate damaged tissue.
Researchers may have discovered one of the keys to mesenchyme's ability
to regenerate damaged tissue. It appears that mesenchymal stem cells produce
the receptor sites for two potent growth factors known as fibroblastic
growth factors I and 2, or FG I and FG2. When the FGI or FG2 comes along,
it locks on to these receptor sites, and "lights it up for action".
When it does, the mesenchyme proliferates at an increased rate. Since part
of mesenchyme's action is to become like the healthy cells it is aligned
with, there is accelerated regeneration of healthy cells. The study's authors
concluded that "human mesenchymal stem cells have great potential
in regenerating diseased or injured tissues." This increased growth
rate, combined with the knowledge that mesenchyme seeks out damaged and
diseased cells, and that it takes on the characteristics of the cells it
is near, now explains why healing and regeneration can occur more rapidly
with an abundance of mesenchyme present in the body."Regenerates Functional
Tissue"
Another research group observed that mesenchyme has "been shown to
regenerate functional tissue when delivered to the site of musculoskeletal
defects in experimental animals" This research group tested human
mesenchyme's ability to heal a clinically significant bone defect. They
implanted human mesenchyme into critical-sized segmental defects in the
femurs of adult rats. Evidence of new bone was apparent by eight weeks,
with increasing bone formation through 12 weeks. "These studies demonstrate
that human mesenchymal stem cells can regenerate bone in a clinically significant
osseous defect and may therefore provide an alternative to autogenous bone
grafts," the researchers reported at the conclusion of the study.
Another study reviewed the effects of mesenchyme on bone development,
bone repair, and skeletal regeneration. It concluded that understanding
how mesenchyme performs these phenomenal regenerative feats "provides
the foundation for the emergence of a new therapeutic technology for cell
therapy". The researchers in this same study predicted that mesenchyme "will
support the development of novel protocols for the treatment of many clinically
challenging conditions," including osteoporosis. "We can begin
to explore therapeutic options that have never before been available."
Researchers at Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Miami further developed
the concept that mesenchyme may provide a therapeutic advantage in dealing
with osteoporosis. In this study, researchers wanted to test the hypothesis
that age-related diseases in bone mass result from decreased osteoblasts
(the cells that create bone) secondary to an age-related loss of osteoprogenitors,
the cellular catalysts that spur osteoblast growth and bone formation.
They extracted bone marrow from the vertebrae of 41 donors of various
ages (3-70 years of age) who had died of traumatic injury. Extensive testing
revealed that the number of mesenchymic stem cells with bone-building potential
decreases early in the aging of humans, and may be responsible for the
age-related reduction in osteoblasts. The researchers commented that these
results are particularly important because the vertebrae are a site of
rapidly developing osteoporosis, and possibly the earliest site of bone
loss in age-related osteoporosis. This further indicates a possible role
for mesenchyme in establishing new protocols for dealing with the crippling
effects of osteoporosis.
Alternative to Bone Grafts
An alternative to painful and costly bone grafts would be an extremely
welcome and useful addition to the limited therapeutic choices currently
available. Another research study used human mesenchyme to repair an osseous
defect in a dog. (Remember, mesenchyme is undifferentitiated fetal tissue
without immune factors, so it can be received and used by other mammals
without being rejected.)
Commenting on their results, the researchers said, "it was established
that human MSCs [mesenchyme] form bone of considerable mechanical integrity
when implanted in an osseous defect in an immunocompromised animal. Furthermore,
bone repair studies in dogs verify that the technology is transferable
to large animals, and that the application of this technology to patients
at geographically remote sites is feasible. These studies suggest that
by combining MSCs with an appropriate delivery vehicle, it may be possible
to offer patients new therapeutic options. "
A research group at the University of Cincinnati's Noyes-Giannestras Biomechanics
Laboratories studied mesenchyme's ability to restore a surgically created
defect in a rabbit tendon. Mesenchymal cells were implanted into a clinically
created defect in the right tendon, and a cell-free collagen gel was implanted
into an identical control defect in the left tendon. Repair tissues were
evaluated at four weeks after surgery and compared to their matched controls.
The tendon tissue that was repaired with mesenchyme demonstrated significant
increases in three separate areas used to measure the strength of a material.
When compared with control results, there was a 26% gain in maximum stress
(the amount of force required to cause a material to fail). There was an
18% gain in modulus (the ability of a material to resist being stretched
when a force is applied to it). Researchers also noted a 33% gain in strain
energy density (the amount of energy that a material [such as a compressed
spring] can store before its internal bonds are disrupted and it changes
shape).
The researchers also observed minor improvements in the tissue structure
of several of the mesenchy-memediated repairs, including increased number
of tenocytes (tendon forming cells) and larger and more mature looking
collagen fiber bundles. They concluded, "... Delivering a large number
of mesenchymal stem cells to a wound site can significantly improve its
biomechanical properties." Ms. McLuskie can personally attest to this,
as can the surgeon who reattached her torn Achilles tendon and was so surprised
when he witnessed her rapid recovery.
Resurrects Aging Cells
Mesenchyme restores bones and tendons and opens a world of possibilities
for new therapeutic options that actually heal by regenerating damaged,
diseased or destroyed tissue. The research really starts to get exciting
when we look at mesenchyme's regenerative abilities. A significant study
on its ability to resurrect aging cells was published in 1990. This study
was a collaborative effort by researchers from the German Cancer Research
Center in Heidelberg, the Clinique La Prairie in Clarens, Switzerland,
and the Max Planck Institute for Immunbiology in Freiburg, Germany. The
researchers examined how mesenchymal cells affected old or senescent cells
that had lost their ability to divide and could no longer exhibit mitotic
activity.
Researchers introduced mesenchyme from embryonic sheep tissue into these aged
cell cultures. The mesenchyme restored the aged cells' responsiveness to growth
factors, and the cells resumed their ability to undergo mitotic divisions.
They became like young cells again.
"Aging cells are known to lose responsiveness to growth factors despite
the presence of respective receptors," the researchers commented in
their discussion of the study results. "Thus, restoring the responsiveness
to growth factors that are contained in serum is likely not to be due to
a reacquisition or an unmasking of receptors. Rather, one could envisage
that transacting factors might be either induced or activated by the embryonic
tissue extract in the senescent cells, thus augmenting transcriptional
activities that may be prerequisites for the activation of cellular DNA
synthesis. Mesenchyme seems to reawaken the aging cell's ability to respond
to the directive of growth factors to divide and grow."
Limited Availability in US
We can expect a plethora of research examining mesenchyme's rejuvenating
effects on a wide range of ailments, defects, and disabilities that were
formerly considered to be incurable. But, despite its amazing properties,
don't expect mesenchyme to appear on drugstore shelves and become part
of mainstream medicine, at least in the near future. Presently it is only
available from one Canadian firm and a few European companies that distribute
in the US. Most available mesenchymes are injectables; however, the Canadian
company produces it as a nutritional supplement to be taken sublingually.
Side Effects
When taking mesenchyme, some people may have a rapid reaction in which
they experience increased vitality. This is sometimes followed by a period
of weariness and the need for increased sleep. They may also feel a sense
of well-being similar to the feeling experienced after a rich meal. Body
temperature may rise.5-1.0° C (.9-1.8° F) for several hours intermittently
during the first few days. This is due to the mild stimulation of the immune
response produced by mesenchyme.
In addition to the rather remarkable qualities listed above, mesenchyme might
be most sought after because of its common "side effects". Over time,
a person taking 1 to 2 vials of mesenchyme per week will notice that the revitalization
process produces a number of clinical changes, which can be noticed most particularly
in the skin. It has been used topically in some cosmetics.) The quality of
the skin improves overall, including tone and elasticity, with a pinkish tinge
to the cheeks. People attain a fresh, more youthful and dewy look. There is
increased resistance to fatigue, improved circulation, and increased physical
and mental abilities." These changes are seen in addition to changes in
the condition for which the person is taking mesenchyme.
Mesenchyme has shown great potential for those suffering from a degenerative
condition, recovering from an injury, or dealing with osteoporosis or any
kind of tissue degeneration or disease. It my be worth your while to investigate
the rejuvenating and reparative possibilities of mesenchyme.
About the Author
Dr. James Wilson holds a PhD in Human Nutrition from the University of
Arizona, Tucson, and is a licensed Doctor of Chiropractic and Naturopathic
Medicine. His doctorate studies at the University of Arizona include minors
in pharmacology, toxicology, microbiology and immunology. In addition,
he holds master's degrees from two other American universities; one in
bionutrition and the other in experimental psychology. He is listed in
The International Who's Who in Medicine (Cambridge, England).
Dr. Wilson has been in private practice since 1978 and now practices in
Tucson, Arizona, where he also conducts private research in cellular immunology.
In addition to his clinical interest in nutrition, immunology with natural
approaches to wellness, he is a nationally known lecturer, author and talk
show guest, as well as a respected nutritional formulator who has worked
with nutritional companies to develop formulas presently available to health
professionals. He encourages people to use every available avenue to achieve
their own health and happiness.
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These are undifferentiated cells that can associate with any tissue in the body, become that tissue and cause any damaged tissue to be regenerated or healed.
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