REGENERATIVE MEDICINE

SPINE: DISC PAIN STUDY

Background: Chronic back pain is considered the number one cause of musculoskeletal disability worldwide. As the fifth most common reason for a physician visit, it affects five out of ten working adults and is responsible for causing 40% of missed days off work. Unfortunately most people will experience acute back pain at some point in their lives.

The most common cause of back pain among younger and middle aged adults is related to tears of the collagen fibers in the disc. These tears by themselves can cause pain, or if a significant number of fibers tear, the disc can bulge and herniate. Bulges and herniation can be a source of irritation or can compress spinal nerves causing “sciatica”. Over time, if the disc does not repair itself, it deteriorates and leads to spinal stenosis, or narrowing of the spaces around the spinal nerves and causing pain in the arms or legs.

Hypothesis: Recent advances in sports medicine have successfully shown that platelets obtained from the blood and other cells in bone marrow can be used to repair chronically torn, non-healing ligaments and tendons. Owing to the relatively low blood supply in the disc, the introduction of concentrated platelets should help to seal tears and contribute vital growth and healing factors to facilitate natural repair processes.

Study Results: Dr. Bodor is administering platelet rich plasma (PRP) to discs experiencing some degree of degeneration in the lumbar, thoracic and cervical spine. As of October 2018, Dr. Bodor and NMRF Research Assistant Yvette Uribe have performed 453 PRP treatment procedures on 377 patients with a total of 886 discs with good to excellent outcomes. All patients are being tracked 3 months post-procedure and again at 1-year after the initial treatment.

With the conclusion of the study, they will submit their findings for publication.

KNEE: ANTERIOR CRUCIATE LIGAMENT (ACL) BIOLOGIC REPAIR

Case Series: We are getting follow-up MRIs at 1-year in the 3 patients we treated, all of whom are doing well.

Prospective Study:

• We are planning a 10-year clinical trial with the UC Davis PM&R and Orthopedics Departments.
• We aim to treat ruptured ACLs with our percutaneous ultrasound-guided BMAC procedure in children and young adults, assessing long-term outcomes and comparing them to a cohort treated with surgical reconstruction.
• IRB approval and NMRF funding are pending.

PLATELET BIOLOGY

Platelet Lysate Method

• Patent application is pending approval.
• Experiments will be repeated with larger volumes, followed by testing in cell culture conditions and growth factor analysis. The goal would be to devise 2 more daughter patents which will lay claim to additional applications ex-vivo and device designs. The latter will continue to undergo modifications over time.

Platelet Dysfunction in the Presence of Anesthetics

• Paper is in preparation and will be submitted to the American Journal of Sports Medicine.

Platelet Quantification Study

• Paper is in preparation