About Dr Jesus Perez
Dr. Jesus Perez is the Medical Services Coordinator for Regenerative Medicine Institute, Tijuana, Mexico.
The Regenerative Medicine Institute is a multi-specialty group of Board Certified physicians and allied health professionals working together to meet the needs of patients and families living with chronic degenerative disease. We work to streamline the referral process, share information with other healthcare personnel, communicate and work with primary care physicians and case managers, research treatments and procedures to find the best options for treating the causes of degenerative disease, and participate in drug trials and research.
Web: http://www.regenerativemedicine.mx/
Phone: (619) 735-9581
Q & A
Q: What kind of stem cells are you using in conjunction with your TCM home-based therapy treatment? Will all treatments at your clinic now include the TCM home based therapy? What exactly has to be done at home and how many months does the home treatment regimen last?
A: We are now using donor cells that have been found to be hypo-immunogenic in conjunction with our TCM home-based therapies. Our goal is to use TCM with each stem cell-based therapy in order to enhance and speed up the regenerative process by creating the biological niche that the cells require in order to start working on their primary objective. The home-based therapy consists of a lyophilized form of TCM. You add water (there is an indicator on the vial that shows how much water to add), and place the solution under the tongue three times a week for anywhere from 2 to 4 months depending on the condition of the patient.
Q: You mention that from experience you have found that not every condition can be treated as successfully as others. Which conditions respond best to treatment and which have minimal results? I know there are a lot of diseases so I'm not expecting a long list, just a few of the most common. Some clinics it seems will treat just about anything which leads me to doubt their credibility.
A: The greatest successes we've had have been with Congestive heart failure and COPD. We've had moderate success with diabetes and kidney failure, due in large part to patients either suspending their habitual medication before it's medically feasible, and in some cases due to the severity of the condition. However, we've found in a few cases that some of the less successful cases have also been due to the fact that the cells themselves have to perform immune-modulatory functions in order to prepare their biological niche before repairing or restoring tissue, which can take months. We've used TCM in two of these cases and experienced an accelerated and increased response. This is what led to our implementation of this adjuvant therapy. It is our belief that by eliminating the need for the stem cells to "pave the way" before they can actually begin the business of repair, that many more conditions will be treated effectively.
Q: I have had a couple of stem cell treatments in the past for lung disease (COPD). It seems like a few days or a week or so after treatment, my heart rate went up for a day or so. Is this normal or even connected with the stem cell treatment? I don't normally have a high heart rate.
A: This is difficult to answer without knowing specifics. In general stem cell therapy does not increase heart rate. It may be that the stem cells you used stimulated a low grade inflammatory reaction and small dilation of blood vessels, which would result in compensation by increased heart rate. However, this is just speculation without knowing details. In general, increased heart rate is not associated with conventional stem cell therapies.
Q: Is your therapy one that uses expanded stem cells? If so how long does a patient have to wait between the extraction and the infusion while the cells are being processed or is everything done in one day?
A: Our inpatient therapies use adipose-derived autologous stem cells (this applies only to heart conditions and diabetes). The cells are extracted, isolated and implanted on the same day. For our outpatient procedures, we use donor cells that have been allowed to divide naturally in-vitro without any manipulation or induction. These cells do not require any additional processing and can be implanted via IV or direct injection without the need for any form of surgical intervention or waiting period. All donor cells are tested for standardized safety criteria including purity, sterility, and lack of contaminants.
Q: Your information mentions "immune regulation". Just what is that in easy to understand terms for someone who has no scientific or medical background?
A: In the simplest terms, we use a small protein derived from white blood cells that acts as a supervisor for the immune system. If your immune system produces an excess of a specific substance that instructs cells to attack your own body (as occurs auto-immune disorders), this "supervisor" will instruct the cells to decrease production of that signal. If your immune system is producing too little of a specific chemical "signal" and is unable to react appropriately or recognize certain foreign substances, then this "supervisor" instructs the immune system to produce more. In essence, it balances out the activity and chemical production of the immune system and trains it to act effectively and efficiently.
Q: Would someone with COPD who got treated at your clinic and then did the home based therapy, but still wanted to see more improvement, have to have another stem cell treatment or would the home based therapy be something that could be extended and possibly increase benefits of the treatment even more? Since I don't know what the home based therapy is, this might be a silly question, but if it could be help to extend it to a year or more then it would sure be easier than traveling for a lot of patients.
A: It is possible that a patient may experience improvement using immune-modulation (home-based therapy) alone, because it would help avoid future damage done to the alveoli during the body's attempt to overcompensate for damage and repair. However, in some cases, an additional stem cell therapy may be required if there is extensive tissue damage and further repair is required.
Q: Do you believe that intranasal delivery is the best way to get stem cells past the blood brain barrier? Do you treat diseases such as Parkinson's or Alzheimer's?
A: Intranasal delivery is a fantastic way to ensure rapid absorption of any substance into the blood stream. The proximity to the central nervous system has no bearing on the permeability of the blood brain barrier. The first issue is determining whether or not this delivery system allows cells to enter blood vessels through a reverse form of diapedesis (the passage of blood cells through capillary walls into the tissues). The passage of cells through vessel walls is normally one-sided (unlike gas and nutrient exchange). It is highly unlikely that these cells possess the elasticity and capability to deform and bounce back to their original shape after attempting to squeeze through to the inside of a blood vessel. the quickest way to get any cell into a blood vessel is to insert them within the lumen of the vessel using IV methods.
The second thing to consider is that stem cells have already been shown to cross the blood-brain barrier (there is some fantastic literature on the subject written by Dr. Karen Aboody at City of Hope in LA). Having cells already in the blood-stream is much easier, more efficient, and guarantees the entire population of cells will be available. It is also important to note that if one attempts to aerosolize cells in order to employ and intra-nasal approach, the accelerant required, and the pressure of the container that could expel the cells at the required speed would most likely destroy any cells.
Q: How do the stem cells know where to go and how long do they stay alive after an infusion? Why is it some patients seem to not feel any improvements for week or months or not at all and some seem to feel better right away?
A: Cells react to chemical signals in the blood stream called "cytokines". These are produced for a myriad of reasons including tissue damage. My favorite example to use is hitting your thumb with a hammer by accident. Your thumb will swell to three times it's size, but the rest of your hand will be perfectly fine. The reason being that the tissue in your thumb that was damaged released cytokines into the blood-stream in order to tell the body where repair is needed. Inflammatory and repair cells detect these chemical signatures and will migrate to the point of highest concentration (the source). This is why that digit swells and the rest don't. The same principal applies to stem cells. They will migrate toward signals of tissue damage.
The reason why some patients seem to not feel improvements right away is that the cells are heading into a hostile environment. This is not the environment in which they were born, nurtured and allowed to divide and thrive. They have the ability to perform immune-modulation and create their optimal environment in order to be able to work effectively and specifically, but preparing that environment can take weeks or months.
This is where the use of our immune-modulator comes in handy. It is a highly concentrated solution that performs the same function in an accelerated fashion, allowing the cells to begin repairing tissue much faster and providing results in much less time.
Q: Do you plan to expand into areas other than Tijuana? Are patients treated at a hospital or a clinic?
A: We currently treat patients in two ways. Hospitalized in-patients (cardiac and diabetic patients) are treated at Angeles Hospital, while other conditions are to be treated at our newly opened out-patient facility two blocks away from Angeles.
Q: Have you published any of the results from the clinical trials you were doing? If not, do you have plans to do so? What do you say to researchers who claim that lots of patients are only getting the placebo effect when they get treated at "offshore" clinics?
A: To date we've published case-report for our cardiac patients and have submitted our data for a larger study that we've participated in to be published by Bioheart using our technique and patients. We have submitted our COPD data for review and publication and are awaiting a response.
In response to researchers who doubt the treatment received in what they call "off-shore" clinics (even though we are on the same continent, and there is no need to cross any body of water, in which case the "shore" is not involved), I agree that there are many less than reputable establishments that perform procedures that may or may not be what they say. However, there are many reputable research facilities and respectable clinics that are attempting to not only provide safe and efficient treatment, but also to continue research and advance the science. The main issue is that it is nearly impossible for Mexican, Central American and South American clinics to be granted publishing consideration. It has been a long-held standard that any research not performed within the USA or certain European institutions is to be disregarded, regardless of validity or merit.
Even so, we continue to generate data in conjunction with several research institutions in the US and Europe and have finally been able to submit our data for consideration due to these relationships. If everything goes well, we'll be able to publish many of our results soon.
Our first peer reviewed publication was coauthored with Dr. Amit Patel head of the Clinical Regenerative Medicine Department at University of Utah. This paper provided the scientific rationale for utilization of adipose stem cells in treatment of leg cardiovascular issues and provided documentation of a patient that we treated who underwent a “miraculous recovery” after the procedure. This paper is available online at http://www.cureus.com/articles/2376-autologous-adipose-derived-stromal-stem-cell-implantation-to-resolve-critical-limb-ischemia-case-report#.VCjzsBYpsU8
Dr. Jesus Perez is the Medical Services Coordinator for Regenerative Medicine Institute, Tijuana, Mexico.
The Regenerative Medicine Institute is a multi-specialty group of Board Certified physicians and allied health professionals working together to meet the needs of patients and families living with chronic degenerative disease. We work to streamline the referral process, share information with other healthcare personnel, communicate and work with primary care physicians and case managers, research treatments and procedures to find the best options for treating the causes of degenerative disease, and participate in drug trials and research.
Web: http://www.regenerativemedicine.mx/
Phone: (619) 735-9581
Q & A
Q: What kind of stem cells are you using in conjunction with your TCM home-based therapy treatment? Will all treatments at your clinic now include the TCM home based therapy? What exactly has to be done at home and how many months does the home treatment regimen last?
A: We are now using donor cells that have been found to be hypo-immunogenic in conjunction with our TCM home-based therapies. Our goal is to use TCM with each stem cell-based therapy in order to enhance and speed up the regenerative process by creating the biological niche that the cells require in order to start working on their primary objective. The home-based therapy consists of a lyophilized form of TCM. You add water (there is an indicator on the vial that shows how much water to add), and place the solution under the tongue three times a week for anywhere from 2 to 4 months depending on the condition of the patient.
Q: You mention that from experience you have found that not every condition can be treated as successfully as others. Which conditions respond best to treatment and which have minimal results? I know there are a lot of diseases so I'm not expecting a long list, just a few of the most common. Some clinics it seems will treat just about anything which leads me to doubt their credibility.
A: The greatest successes we've had have been with Congestive heart failure and COPD. We've had moderate success with diabetes and kidney failure, due in large part to patients either suspending their habitual medication before it's medically feasible, and in some cases due to the severity of the condition. However, we've found in a few cases that some of the less successful cases have also been due to the fact that the cells themselves have to perform immune-modulatory functions in order to prepare their biological niche before repairing or restoring tissue, which can take months. We've used TCM in two of these cases and experienced an accelerated and increased response. This is what led to our implementation of this adjuvant therapy. It is our belief that by eliminating the need for the stem cells to "pave the way" before they can actually begin the business of repair, that many more conditions will be treated effectively.
Q: I have had a couple of stem cell treatments in the past for lung disease (COPD). It seems like a few days or a week or so after treatment, my heart rate went up for a day or so. Is this normal or even connected with the stem cell treatment? I don't normally have a high heart rate.
A: This is difficult to answer without knowing specifics. In general stem cell therapy does not increase heart rate. It may be that the stem cells you used stimulated a low grade inflammatory reaction and small dilation of blood vessels, which would result in compensation by increased heart rate. However, this is just speculation without knowing details. In general, increased heart rate is not associated with conventional stem cell therapies.
Q: Is your therapy one that uses expanded stem cells? If so how long does a patient have to wait between the extraction and the infusion while the cells are being processed or is everything done in one day?
A: Our inpatient therapies use adipose-derived autologous stem cells (this applies only to heart conditions and diabetes). The cells are extracted, isolated and implanted on the same day. For our outpatient procedures, we use donor cells that have been allowed to divide naturally in-vitro without any manipulation or induction. These cells do not require any additional processing and can be implanted via IV or direct injection without the need for any form of surgical intervention or waiting period. All donor cells are tested for standardized safety criteria including purity, sterility, and lack of contaminants.
Q: Your information mentions "immune regulation". Just what is that in easy to understand terms for someone who has no scientific or medical background?
A: In the simplest terms, we use a small protein derived from white blood cells that acts as a supervisor for the immune system. If your immune system produces an excess of a specific substance that instructs cells to attack your own body (as occurs auto-immune disorders), this "supervisor" will instruct the cells to decrease production of that signal. If your immune system is producing too little of a specific chemical "signal" and is unable to react appropriately or recognize certain foreign substances, then this "supervisor" instructs the immune system to produce more. In essence, it balances out the activity and chemical production of the immune system and trains it to act effectively and efficiently.
Q: Would someone with COPD who got treated at your clinic and then did the home based therapy, but still wanted to see more improvement, have to have another stem cell treatment or would the home based therapy be something that could be extended and possibly increase benefits of the treatment even more? Since I don't know what the home based therapy is, this might be a silly question, but if it could be help to extend it to a year or more then it would sure be easier than traveling for a lot of patients.
A: It is possible that a patient may experience improvement using immune-modulation (home-based therapy) alone, because it would help avoid future damage done to the alveoli during the body's attempt to overcompensate for damage and repair. However, in some cases, an additional stem cell therapy may be required if there is extensive tissue damage and further repair is required.
Q: Do you believe that intranasal delivery is the best way to get stem cells past the blood brain barrier? Do you treat diseases such as Parkinson's or Alzheimer's?
A: Intranasal delivery is a fantastic way to ensure rapid absorption of any substance into the blood stream. The proximity to the central nervous system has no bearing on the permeability of the blood brain barrier. The first issue is determining whether or not this delivery system allows cells to enter blood vessels through a reverse form of diapedesis (the passage of blood cells through capillary walls into the tissues). The passage of cells through vessel walls is normally one-sided (unlike gas and nutrient exchange). It is highly unlikely that these cells possess the elasticity and capability to deform and bounce back to their original shape after attempting to squeeze through to the inside of a blood vessel. the quickest way to get any cell into a blood vessel is to insert them within the lumen of the vessel using IV methods.
The second thing to consider is that stem cells have already been shown to cross the blood-brain barrier (there is some fantastic literature on the subject written by Dr. Karen Aboody at City of Hope in LA). Having cells already in the blood-stream is much easier, more efficient, and guarantees the entire population of cells will be available. It is also important to note that if one attempts to aerosolize cells in order to employ and intra-nasal approach, the accelerant required, and the pressure of the container that could expel the cells at the required speed would most likely destroy any cells.
Q: How do the stem cells know where to go and how long do they stay alive after an infusion? Why is it some patients seem to not feel any improvements for week or months or not at all and some seem to feel better right away?
A: Cells react to chemical signals in the blood stream called "cytokines". These are produced for a myriad of reasons including tissue damage. My favorite example to use is hitting your thumb with a hammer by accident. Your thumb will swell to three times it's size, but the rest of your hand will be perfectly fine. The reason being that the tissue in your thumb that was damaged released cytokines into the blood-stream in order to tell the body where repair is needed. Inflammatory and repair cells detect these chemical signatures and will migrate to the point of highest concentration (the source). This is why that digit swells and the rest don't. The same principal applies to stem cells. They will migrate toward signals of tissue damage.
The reason why some patients seem to not feel improvements right away is that the cells are heading into a hostile environment. This is not the environment in which they were born, nurtured and allowed to divide and thrive. They have the ability to perform immune-modulation and create their optimal environment in order to be able to work effectively and specifically, but preparing that environment can take weeks or months.
This is where the use of our immune-modulator comes in handy. It is a highly concentrated solution that performs the same function in an accelerated fashion, allowing the cells to begin repairing tissue much faster and providing results in much less time.
Q: Do you plan to expand into areas other than Tijuana? Are patients treated at a hospital or a clinic?
A: We currently treat patients in two ways. Hospitalized in-patients (cardiac and diabetic patients) are treated at Angeles Hospital, while other conditions are to be treated at our newly opened out-patient facility two blocks away from Angeles.
Q: Have you published any of the results from the clinical trials you were doing? If not, do you have plans to do so? What do you say to researchers who claim that lots of patients are only getting the placebo effect when they get treated at "offshore" clinics?
A: To date we've published case-report for our cardiac patients and have submitted our data for a larger study that we've participated in to be published by Bioheart using our technique and patients. We have submitted our COPD data for review and publication and are awaiting a response.
In response to researchers who doubt the treatment received in what they call "off-shore" clinics (even though we are on the same continent, and there is no need to cross any body of water, in which case the "shore" is not involved), I agree that there are many less than reputable establishments that perform procedures that may or may not be what they say. However, there are many reputable research facilities and respectable clinics that are attempting to not only provide safe and efficient treatment, but also to continue research and advance the science. The main issue is that it is nearly impossible for Mexican, Central American and South American clinics to be granted publishing consideration. It has been a long-held standard that any research not performed within the USA or certain European institutions is to be disregarded, regardless of validity or merit.
Even so, we continue to generate data in conjunction with several research institutions in the US and Europe and have finally been able to submit our data for consideration due to these relationships. If everything goes well, we'll be able to publish many of our results soon.
Our first peer reviewed publication was coauthored with Dr. Amit Patel head of the Clinical Regenerative Medicine Department at University of Utah. This paper provided the scientific rationale for utilization of adipose stem cells in treatment of leg cardiovascular issues and provided documentation of a patient that we treated who underwent a “miraculous recovery” after the procedure. This paper is available online at http://www.cureus.com/articles/2376-autologous-adipose-derived-stromal-stem-cell-implantation-to-resolve-critical-limb-ischemia-case-report#.VCjzsBYpsU8