The NeoStem^® Collection Process

At NeoStem^®, we take great pride in the fact that we are the first to provide adult stem cell collection and long-term banking services to the general adult population. Historically, the most commonly used procedure to obtain bone marrow stem cells was a procedure known as “bone marrow aspiration”. Most of the time, this procedure is performed under general anesthesia and can involve a significant amount of pain and discomfort.

NeoStem^® makes it easy and virtually painless. Advances in technology now allow NeoStem^® to increase the number of stem cells in your peripheral (circulating) blood. The process is called mobilization. Mobilization temporarily causes stem cells residing in your bone marrow, to migrate into the peripheral blood (a process that occurs naturally in the body when there is stress or injury).

Once you have completed mobilization, the next step is apheresis. Apheresis is a painless and safe procedure (similar to donating blood) which separates and collects, through a sterile, closed and disposable system, the stem cells from your peripheral blood. The remaining cells are immediately returned to you.

The collection process usually lasts about 4 hours, during which time you are in a comfortable, relaxing, reclined position, enjoying a great movie on a flat screen television, enjoying your favorite music with your own headphones, or even working on your laptop. This procedure takes place in a NeoStem^® approved collection facility which may even be located in your physician’s office.

After the collection, approximately 50% of the collection is stored in an immune reconstitution bag and can be used should you be diagnosed with a stem cell treatable cancer, or become the victim of radiation or chemical exposure and require an immune system transplantation. The remaining ASCs are stored in up to 20 separate containers, which may be used for new regenerative medicine therapies in the future. All stem cells are stored and tracked through a system designed to return stem cells only to the patient from whom they were collected.

Once your stem cells are safely stored in a state of the art cryo-preservation tank, they will be available for the rest of your life. Studies have shown that stem cells preserve quite well and only very small amounts of your banked stem cells may lose viability throughout the course of the long term storage.