Stem Cell Research

(Adipose) Stem Cells To Grow Bigger Breasts

And, believe it or not, this isn't a Cytori Therapeutics press release headline.

Before we get yelled at we should point out that this the above headline is not ours either.  It's a headline from no less than the Times of London Health section.  We have used it here only to point out its  true significance. 

This is the first time to our knowledge that Cytori Therapeutic's (CYTX) Celution system for adipose stem cell extraction and processing has been implicitly rather than explicitly referred to in an article about cosmetic enhancement and adipose stem cells. Either the Cytori publicity department is falling down on the job or others at the point of medical application are picking up the baton.

We've been more than a little critical of Cytori's publicity releases and their spin.  Cytori makes the Celution series of machines which extract, process, and, through an additional Cytori product, store adipose stem cells. Cytori, faced with selling a machine that deals in adipose cells, had to promote a usage of the cells.  They have concentrated in cosmetic (post cancer breast reconstruction) and heart disease as their two primary arenas.

Anti Aging Skin Cream From Stem Cells? Not Quite Yet

    A stem cell cosmetic frenzy started last year when Voss Laboratories of Salt Lake City released Amatokin through Bloomingdale's. Amatokin's slogan is "Stem Cells: The Future of Skin Rejuvenation."  And rejuvenate it indeed should since its cost is about $190 per ounce. Other products have entered the market with enticing claims, such as, "Utilizes stem cell technology," or "made of stem cell activating properties." 

    "The goal of these products is to create a more youthful cell that would replenish elastin and collagen," says Dr. Kenneth Beer, a West Palm Beach, Fla., dermatologist and clinical instructor at the University of Miami as quoted in the Los Angeles Times.  "But there is no conceivable way today that stem cells could be delivered in a topical product."

    What these products are designed to do is stimulate or prompt the skin's own stem cells layered between the epidermis and the dermis.  Skin stem cells are constantly dividing.  Newer cells move to the surface and older cells are shed from the top layer.  Aging slows this process of division, migration and shedding.  Elasticity is gradually lost, as are uniform color and other characteristics that we all recognize as youthful appearing skin.