The Federal Supervision Service for Public Health and Social Affairs Control has published the results of a campaign that it had been conducting for months against the use of unregistered cell technologies. In collaboration with the Prosecutor General's Office, it checked 42 Moscow clinics and beauty salons using these technologies. Some commercial structures ran advertisements promising clients that they would look much younger after a course of "stem cells injections." The origin of the cells was unknown, but the price was clear: $20,000-$30,000.
The Service suspended the licenses of 37 medical organizations after the raids. Its head Ramil Khabriyev said, "Today, no cell technologies can be used in practical healthcare." They will only be allowed permitted after they are officially registered. But not a single research center has yet submitted an application.
"Russia makes far broader use of unauthorized technologies than the U.S., Japan and other developed countries," says Sergei Tkachenko, head of the Service's medication registration department. He also pointed out that no cell technologies had been given the all clear, while pathogenesis was possible after a stem cell course. Unscrupulous clinics, though, preferred not to inform their clients about this.
Cells do have a great advantage: an increase in the human body is known to help restore sick organs and injured tissues by producing healthy young cells instead of the "bad" ones. But this benefit, the ability to develop into different tissues, is simultaneously a considerable problem, as the cells can differentiate into tumors as well.
The behavior of these cells can neither be predicted nor controlled. "No one can predict what organ a stem cell will settle in and what it will transform into," Tkachenko says. "Several incidents have been registered when stem cells led to oncological diseases."
Only five medicalinstitutions, including the Moscow Cryocenter, the Transplantology and Artificial Organs Institute of the Health Ministry, the Vishnevsky Surgery Institute and the Stem Cells Bank, are allowed to collect, transport and store stem cells. Stem cells can be taken from almost any tissue, such as bone marrow, peripheral blood, umbilical blood, fat tissue and others.
Tkachenko believes that between 10 and 15 research institutes and medical facilities conduct scientific research into cell technologies. In this sphere "the achievements of Russian scientists are comparable with those of their Western colleagues," says Khabriyev. The leaders are the Cardiology Scientific Center, the Hematology Institute of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, the Transplantology Institute, the Blokhin Oncological Scientific Center (all based in Moscow), the St. Petersburg Experimental Medicine Institute, and institutes in Tomsk and Novosibirsk (Siberia). The Russian Academy of Sciences also conducts fundamental research.
"The research into use of bone marrow stem cells to restore the functions and architectonics of other organs and systems is promising, but more meticulous experimental work needs to be conducted before it can be introduced into broad clinical practice," is the verdict of the Healthcare Service.
In other words, the mass treatment with cell technologies is still far away, and any rejuvenating stem cells injections remain illegal.
The Service intends to exercise strict control over the use of cell technologies and continue its campaign against stem cells manipulations. Khabriyev promises to launch investigations after requests from patients into unscrupulous commercial clinics and beauty salons, which he says will have "serious problems." The Federal Antimonopoly Service will prohibit advertising of unregistered cell technologies.
