Bone Marrow

Bone Marrow can be used in some forms of Regenerative Medicine.

What is Bone Marrow?

Bone Marrow is a bendable tissue located on the inside of our bones. Humans create red blood cells through production in the center of bone marrow located in the heads of large bones.

This process is called hematopoiesis and is known to generate an estimated 500 billion blood cells on a daily basis. Typically, bone marrow makes up 4% of the human body’s entire total mass.

 What are Stem Cells?

Regarded as undifferentiated natural cells in the human body, stem cells have the ability to differentiate and divide into specialized cells. One of the main sources of stem cells in the human body is bone marrow. In order for stem cells to be accessed through bone marrow, they need to extracted by drilling into the bone.

 What are Bone Marrow derived stem cell injections?

Because stem cells possess regenerative properties, they are now being used to fight certain conditions that are caused by joint pain. When it comes to extracted bone marrow, all of the cells basically act as a “blank slate” cell that can be formed into certain types of cells like muscle, cartilage and tendons.

In terms of musculoskeletal regeneration, the mesenchymal stem cells located in bone marrow are essential for bone and cartilage regeneration. The part of the bone marrow with the richest levels of stem cells are usually found in the bones of the spinal chord and crest shaped part of the hip.

 How are the injections carried out?

To perform bone marrow derived stem cell injections, bone marrow will generally be extracted from the hip bone. This area of the body will be sterilized and numbed in order to minimize any pain. It’s important to remember that because the body continually produces new bone marrow, this procedure does not present any long term issues.

Once the bone marrow is extracted from the body, it is processed instantly to get the highest concentration of the stem cells. The bone marrow will then be put into a centrifuge and spun around at an extremely high velocity. At this point, the patient will be injected with the highly concentrated bone marrow.

 What does bone marrow derived injections help with?

Similar to other forms of regenerative medicine, bone marrow derived injections work better for some conditions when compared to others. Although there is still a lot of scientific research being conducted on bone marrow injections, there are some areas of the body and conditions that have been proven to be more compatible with the procedure.

Some of the conditions that are commonly being treated with bone marrow derived injections include sacroiliac joint arthritis, neck and back spinal arthritis in facet joints and extremity arthritis found in the knees, hips, ankles and shoulders. While these are the most frequently treated conditions, there are other forms of joint pain that is treated with bone marrow derived injections.