The Future of Regenerative Medicine: Innovations to Watch
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In this interview, Dr Neil S. Sadick explores cutting-edge advancements in regenerative medicine, including platelet-rich plasma (PRP), exosomes, and cell banking, and their potential to revolutionize dermatology.
The Dermatologist: What current advancements in regenerative medicine are you most excited about, and how do you see them impacting dermatology?
Dr Sadick: The areas of regenerative medicine in dermatology and aesthetics that I am most excited about are PRP, exosomes, and cell banking. PRP is well established as a good treatment for slowing down hair loss and it is also used for facial rejuvenation and anti-aging indications as well, either by itself or with laser or radio frequency procedures that we perform in our office. PRP has been cleared for use by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Exosomes are small microparticles that contain biologically active growth factors, which can be derived autonomously from our own platelets. They are being studied now in the early phases, but I think they have potential. We need to learn what sort of role they will play, and I believe there will be more studies that will move forward in the future. Exosomes are not FDA approved and should not be used in clinical practice either as an injection or for topical cosmeceutical use.
Another major area is cell banking where we remove some hair follicles from a hair pull of about 50 hairs from the back of the scalp. Then the cells are sent to a cell banking facility, either in California or at the University of Toronto, and we are able take these products at any time in life to stimulate hair growth, for example. Cell banking is a hot new area because we have cells that can be transformed into skin care products or hair stimulation products that have a lifelong potency.
The Dermatologist: What emerging technologies or innovations do you believe will be pivotal in advancing regenerative medicine over the next decade?
Dr Sadick: I think the regenerative technologies that will help advance this area in the future will be the ability to clone hair cells and maybe regrow hair cells. We have not quite perfected it yet, but the regeneration of hair cells is a major area, and I believe it will be utilized in clinical practice at some point in the near future. We will learn more about exosomes. I think we are going to find out the best way to isolate them, be it from ourselves or from other sources, and also the most active growth factors that can be utilized to cause skin regeneration and stimulate hair growth. And then the ability to have our pluripotent stem cells banked and be able to use them throughout our life so we have an unlimited potential of cells that we can develop into skin care products, anti-aging products, and wound healing products if we need them, as well as being part of our hair loss prevention and stimulation programs. Developing more products from our own cells will be a major advance that we are going to see in regenerative medicine over the next several years.
The Dermatologist: How do you foresee regenerative medicine transforming patient care and treatment outcomes in dermatology? What are some long-term goals or visions you have for the field?
Dr Sadick: The areas where we have seen regenerative medicine play a major role are, for example, after laser treatments to improve the results and decrease downtime. I think the long-term goals of regenerative medicine are 1) to improve results in terms of wound healing; 2) to improve the safety of the various laser and other aesthetic procedures that we perform; and 3) to be able to stimulate more hair regrowth and maybe, at some point, to be able to achieve the results that hair transplantation surgery does. We are not there today, but it is a goal that we may be able to achieve.
To watch more from this interview, visit Innovations in Regenerative Medicine
