Press Releases
VetStem Biopharma Shares the Story of Sonny Bar Lisa Who Was Successfully Treated With VetStem Cell Therapy
Sonny Bar Lisa, or Sonny, was treated for a torn tendon utilizing VetStem Regenerative Cell Therapy.
2019-04-09 --
Sonny Bar Lisa, or Sonny for short, is a quarter horse that was lame on his left front limb for approximately two months. After a series of diagnostics, an MRI was performed which revealed Sonny had torn his left front deep digital flexor tendon. Sonny’s owner, Alison, researched the injury and found that VetStem Regenerative Cell Therapy may be a treatment option for her horse so she brought the information to her veterinarian.
Sonny’s veterinarian had experience utilizing VetStem Cell Therapy and agreed to try stem cell therapy to help with Sonny’s condition. An incision was made at Sonny’s tailhead to extract a sample of fat tissue. This tissue was aseptically packaged and priority shipped to the VetStem laboratory in San Diego, California. Typically, once the fat is processed and injectable stem cell doses are created, they are immediately shipped back to the treating veterinarian so the patient receives treatment within 48 hours of the initial fat collection. For Sonny’s case, his veterinarian wanted to make sure he had a specific number of doses so instead of shipping the cells out immediately, all of the cells were put into culture. The culture process is used to expand and “grow” additional cells to ultimately create more stem cell doses. The process took a few weeks to complete and once the cells were ready, the doses were shipped to Sonny’s veterinarian for the scheduled injection.
Sonny received three stem cell injections: two intra-lesionally into his injured deep digital flexor tendon, and one intravenously. His veterinarian also elected to treat Sonny with platelet rich plasma in conjunction with the stem cell therapy. Platelet therapy is a process by which an injectable concentrate of a patient’s own platelets is created utilizing the patient’s blood. The concentrate is then injected into the site of an injury where the platelets release growth factors that attract stem cells and stimulate local tissue repair. Stem cell therapy and platelet therapy are believed to work synergistically.
After treatment, Sonny went through a twelve-month rehabilitation program to slowly get him back to where he was prior to the injury. According to Alison, Sonny was 99% sound after that twelve months however it was determined that he had a small crack in his navicular bone. For this, his veterinarian performed a treatment with a medication that is indicated for the control of the clinical signs of navicular syndrome in horses. After three months, Alison reported Sonny was 100% sound. Alison stated, “Initially we just did pleasure riding and trail riding, but we have recently started retraining in dressage and he is now competing at introductory level classes locally! He is a very happy horse!”
Stem cells are regenerative cells that can differentiate into many tissue types, reduce pain and inflammation, help to restore range of motion, and stimulate regeneration of tendon, ligament and joint tissues. In a clinical case series using VetStem Regenerative Cell Therapy in horses with tendon and ligament and joint injuries, it was found that VetStem Regenerative Cell Therapy helped these horses to return to full work or to the activity level that the owner desired.
