Sports medicine starts with the Sun Miracle Doctor

Chapter 280 Stem Cell Therapy

In the surgical preparation room of the medical center, a large number of films were inserted into the light box. Chen Yu stood with his arms folded, carefully checking each film and considering and weighing the surgical plan.

"Chen, have you ever considered stem cell therapy?"

Beside him, Jamie suddenly said a word without thinking.

"What do you mean?" Chen Yu turned to look at Jamie.

Jamie said: "I mean I noticed some new papers and research, saying that mesenchymal stem cells may be applied to cartilage and tendon trauma to achieve autologous regeneration. I feel that this direction is quite reliable and is also important in the future. A research direction, think about it, we can even create that sheep."

sheep?
Chen Yu was stunned for a moment and quickly realized that he was talking about the cloned sheep.

"What paper are you reading? Let me take a look." Chen Yu asked.

"wait for me a while."

Jamie went out and came back with an issue of JAMA ten minutes later.

He turned to one of the articles and pointed it out to Chen Yu.

But in the long run, this therapy is certainly not the ultimate treatment for cartilage wear, a disease that is common among athletes.

Or a medical research team from Harvard Medical School.

It is to take cartilage tissue from unimportant parts of your body, culture and expand it with stem cells, and finally transplant it to the damaged area.

This idea is consistent with the microfracture therapy Chen Yu is currently using.

As for microfracture surgery, Chen Yu has actually discovered the problem.

In the past two years, Chen Yu has done many cases and has certain research samples in hand.

It is a team, and the leader of the team is Professor John Cunningham.

Chen Yu reopened the magazine and checked the signature of this paper.

Chen Yu took it and looked at it carefully.

It was the issue in February last year.

It can basically be proven that the fibrocartilage produced through blood infiltration from fractures is inferior in performance to the body's native hyaline cartilage.

Fortunately, ordinary patients do not have such high exercise needs, and after discovering this problem, Chen Yu will also use it for ordinary patients as long as the treatment effect is sufficient.

But Chen Yu cured Barty and Hardaway, more because of the system effect.

Using stem cells for cartilage repair is actually nothing new. As early as 94, a medical team in Sweden tried to repair autologous cartilage.

The paper in hand proposes that mesenchymal stem cells may have better expansion and repair effects. They envision finding a suitable carrier, like a heart scaffold, to embed into damaged areas to ensure cartilage regeneration. The structural strength is improved, and then mesenchymal stem cells are injected into it to achieve the effect of regeneration and healing.

Chen Yu thought for a moment, picked up his cell phone, and called Wash.

It just uses human stem cells.

After a while, Chen Yu put it down and said, "I understand the general idea."

However, postoperative clinical results are generally poor.

Chen Yu found that if the systemic effect is used, the regenerated fibrocartilage can achieve high performance strength. However, if the systemic effect is not used, the treatment effect for ordinary patients is often unsatisfactory.

The person is from Harvard Medical School and may know this person.

Moreover, Mayo itself is also a top hospital. It sponsors many medical research projects and has access to the most cutting-edge research results.

That is to say, Chen Yu focuses on the small project of surgery and sports medicine. Otherwise, with Chen Yu's current luxurious resume, he can communicate more with the medical community and get involved with pharmaceutical companies, so that he can have many channels to get in touch with these things.

"Professor John Cunningham, I know, what's wrong?" Wash knew this professor as expected.

Chen Yu explained his intention and wanted Wash to introduce him on his behalf.

"Well, if it's convenient, I'd like to visit him in person." Chen Yu thought about it and thought it would be better to visit him in person.

Wash said: "Of course this is no problem, and with your current reputation and qualifications, you can visit directly without going through me."

Chen Yu is not some unknown person. He is a miracle doctor and a medical advisor to the president. He can meet whoever he wants.

After hanging up the phone, Chen Yu said: "Jamie, get ready. We will go to Boston tomorrow."

The next day, the two flew to Boston and met John Cunningham smoothly.

Cunningham was very enthusiastic about Chen Yu's arrival. He hugged Chen Yu excitedly and said with a smile: "I have been thinking about when I can see you, this miracle doctor, but I have participated so many times." I haven’t seen you at any medical seminar. Chen, maybe you should focus on academic aspects, which will be beneficial to the entire medical community.”

Not to mention reviving vegetative patients, all of the top athletes treated by Chen Yu are of great research value and can be studied as cases to promote the development of medicine.

Chen Yu let go of him.

Cunningham is in his fifties, wears glasses and has thin, light blond hair.

"I feel like I'm still young and I still want to focus on clinical practice." Chen Yu prevaricated.

When engaging in academic research, there is no way to talk about the magical effects brought about by your own systems.

Cunningham nodded in understanding.

A clinical career would have a brighter financial future. At Chen Yu's age, since he has already made a name for himself, it is unrealistic to concentrate on research.

After chatting for a while, Chen Yu started chatting about the reason for his visit.

"We call the stem cell treatment for cartilage defects you mentioned the first generation therapy. They also announced the results of follow-up cases the year before last year, which basically proved that the regenerated cartilage is still fibrocartilage and does not have good enough mechanical properties. The treatment process is too complicated, so this therapy can basically be declared a failure.”

Cunningham didn't show much regret at the loss. Medical research, like all scientific research, progresses through failure again and again.

He then presented their team’s research results.

"We are now considering using autologous periosteum to seed chondrocytes cultured from stem cells on the periosteum in advance and then suture them to the damaged cartilage area."

Chen Yu generally understood.

To put it bluntly, it is similar to the method used by the previous Swedish team, but it goes a step further. Instead of using autologous cartilage, now only the periosteum is used, which may cause less damage to the body.

Of course, although it is just a small improvement, it involves early transplantation and in vitro culture amplification, which definitely requires careful research.

But it still didn't quite meet Chen Yu's expectations.

"John, what's the idea you proposed in the paper?" Chen Yu asked.

The therapy using autologous periosteum is considered by them to be a second-generation therapy. They have already produced results and are now promoting clinical trials. However, the FDA is still going through the approval process for clinical trials. No one knows whether it will be successful. Know.

The method they mentioned in the paper is obviously a further method.

Cunningham did not hide it: "This is one of our future ideas, because the existing technology cannot give the regenerated cartilage tissue sufficient mechanical properties."

Having said this, he paused and looked at Chen Yu a few more times.

Cunningham has always been curious about why the top athletes treated by Chen Yu using microfracture surgery could recover and return to the competition.

Chen Yu did not publish any relevant papers, so no one knows how Chen Yu did it.

"Then we will consider using a special scaffold, like a honeycomb, with a certain strength, and then fill it with mesenchymal stem cells to integrate with the surrounding cartilage and have sufficient strength."

Now that these ideas have been written into papers and published, Cunningham is not afraid to tell Chen Yu.

After explaining, Cunningham continued: "Chen, you have resources and are proficient in clinical practice. In fact, we can cooperate and conduct in-depth research in this area. There will definitely be great potential."

The subtext is that Chen Yu has money.

It can be said that Chen Yu is now one of the most profitable doctors in the United States.

And not only can I make money, but I also have access to many resources.

Unlike myself, it all depends on sponsorship.

"I'll think about it." Chen Yu smiled, neither agreeing nor rejecting.

Next, Chen Yu visited his laboratory and had an in-depth exchange with him before leaving.

On the way back to the hotel, Jamie asked curiously: "Chen, I feel that their research is quite promising, and they must be short of money. Won't you consider his proposal?"

After some exchanges, Jamie clearly felt that Cunningham had a feeling of pulling Chen Yu into the group.

Also normal.

Medical research teams like theirs are always short of funds.

The National Academy of Medicine provides a large amount of medical research funds every year, but there are so many projects to be studied and there are so many research institutions that ordinary people cannot apply for them.

Then you can only rely on the donors, which are medical companies or wealthy people who want to do good things.

And this depends on the team leader’s network.

Obviously, Cunningham has no advantage in any aspect.

Chen Yu said: "I thought about it. After thinking about it, I decided that we should do it ourselves. Jamie, it just so happens that the research project in your hand has been completed. There hasn't been much work during this period. Do you want to consider forming a team? Do research on this.”

It's not that Chen Yu doesn't trust Cunningham, but Chen Yu knows a little about the nonsense involved in scientific research.

Many research teams regard the funders as the main culprit.

And after the exchange just now, Chen Yu also felt that Cunningham's research had reached a bottleneck. The idea was good, but they had no direction at all on how to realize it.

Investing money at this time is really no different from throwing it into water.

If you want to throw it away, why can't you throw it yourself?

At the same time, Cunningham has written a paper and published it, so there is no problem in being inspired and doing research on his own.

Jamie was stunned for a moment, thought for a moment, and asked tentatively: "How much money do you plan to invest?"

It's all about money.

Chen Yu thought for a moment and said with a smile: "Let's try investing two million first, and we will see the results later."

For preliminary research, two million US dollars should be enough. After all, Chen Yu has a clinic, and the equipment and space are all ready.

If good research results are really produced, with Chen Yu's network, it will be easy to find money.

"Speaking of this stent, you can consider allograft. The cost of autologous stent is too high and troublesome. Just use pig stent. I feel it should be a good choice." Chen Yu added.

The core of this research project is naturally this special bracket that provides mechanical structure.

If autologous is used, it will be very laborious just to find suitable research samples, so it is better to use allogeneic.

As for aliens, the best choice is of course pigs.

It's cheap and easy to save money. In the future, you can make more bone soup and drink it when there is nothing in the clinic cafeteria.

(End of this chapter)