Nigerian doctors pioneer target- organ delivery of adult stem cells

*Administered adult stem cells to both kidneys in a patient with sickle cell disease, stage V of chronic renal ailment

Two Nigerian-born but American trained medical doctors have pioneered target organ delivery of adult stem cells to treat sickle cell and kidney disease patients.

In an industry first, Dr. David Ikudayisi, a regenerative medicine specialist and medical director of Glory Wellness Clinic, Lekki, Lagos, radiological guided access through the blood vessels supplying blood to each of the respective kidneys (left and right renal arteries consecutively). Ikudayisi was facilitated by an interventional radiologist, Dr. Hammed Ninalowo of IRDOCNIGERIA, in a procedure performed in the Cath-lab at the First Cardiology Consultants Ikoyi on November 19 2020, administered adult stem cells to both kidneys in a patient with sickle cell disease and stage V of chronic kidney disease.

Ikudayisi told journalists: “There is great optimism if not full confidence that regeneration of the patient’s kidneys will be achieved with the gradual recovery of normal kidney function. The overwhelming satisfaction regarding the local availability of these possibilities rests in its enormous potential to save thousands or even many more Nigerians the cost and rigours of ‘medical tourism’, and in addition significantly mitigating the risk of falling prey to unscrupulous or subpar practices abroad.

“The field teems with hope, and there is conviction amongst the hopeful that regenerative medicine is almost certainly at this time set in the north field of medicine and the day of its sprawling dominance is only a question of time.”

He further explained: “Once upon a time, certain diseases if remediable were deemed so only by profoundly life-altering medical intervention in the best-case scenario, or altogether absolutely irremediable in the worst-case scenario. But many thanks to God, this gloomy state of things are undergoing a dramatic and progressive pulverization before our very eyes. And at the helm of this medical juggernaut comfortably sits regenerative medicine amongst a few others of the likes of genetic engineering.

“Regenerative medicine is that ‘miraculous’ branch of the profession which is able to roll its eyes at major pharmacotherapy, laugh in the face of invasive surgical intervention, and rather very conservatively, dramatically and powerfully muster the body’s physiological healing capabilities by scaling them up to heal degenerative disease. Two popular modalities of this invigoratingly heartening swiftly emerging medical field are platelet-rich plasma therapy, and adult stem cell therapy (different from embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells).

“While most of the well-informed are probably in the know regarding the afore-laid out glistening promises of these novel medical fields, the even more relevant piece of the health information jigsaw which may be lost on many is the motion and vitality of regenerative medicine right here on the shores of the motherland.”