Can Stem cells damage a tissue valve?

[adnan]

I have a St. Jude Trifecta and I want to go for stem cells treatment for my shoulder. However, I am concerned that stem cells might react negatively to the foreign tissue. The doctors are not recommending it. I wish I had known about this before surgery so I might have done stem cells treatment before the avr replacement. Does anyone have any experience with this?

 

[pellicle]

a fascinating question ... my gut reaction is suggest there should be no interaction. However knowing nothing at all about the possibilities I'm going to do a little digging. I'll post back with what I find.

 

[adnan]

Hey Pellicle,

Thanks for your reply. My gut reaction is the same and I can't find any studies related to it. Their function is to repair damaged tissue and regenerate. It shouldn't be to attach foreign tissue. If you find anything I'll greatly appreciate it if you can share it with us. I'll be emailing my surgeon about it as well.

 

[pellicle]

Hi

I've also turned up NIX too

Their function is to repair damaged tissue and regenerate. It shouldn't be to attach foreign tissue. If you find anything I'll greatly appreciate it if you can share it with us. I'll be emailing my surgeon about it as well.

well as I understand it (and yes details matter) that "repair" of dammaged tissue is actually swapping our parts (which are the cells) and the way that stem cells work is to start as an undifferentiated cell (thus stem of the tree of possible leaves they could form) and differentiate into the sort of cell which they encounter. The idea is that from an embryo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embryology). all cells start the same and slowly differentiate themselves (change into something specialised such as a nerve cell or a liver cell or ...

now the thing with a tissue valve is that the tissue is dead. Its essentially a fine version of leather gloves (which is why they wear out). Since they are dead cells (still in the matrix of the tissue they were in, say pericardial tissue in the case of a pericardial valve) there should be no interaction between them and the stem cells.

but should is my favorite word, so I don't know if there may be....

still looking ... maybe the answer is nobody yet knows.

 

[adnan]

Thanks mate. That puts my mind at ease. I am also contacting my surgeon and I found a doctor who had done the treatment on many tissue valve patients with no negative outcome on the valve.