Regenerative Medicine Needs More Than Stem Cells

Published September 10, 2026

By Jennifer C. Smith-Parker

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Stem cell therapies vary widely yet many physicians still treat them as interchangeable. A more credible model requires diagnostics, product characterization and conventional medical context to determine who and when should receive regenerative treatment.

Stem cell and regenerative medicine clinics are buzzy topics for both physicians and patients, but caution should be heeded considering stem cell therapy is never just one treatment. Rather, they vary by tissue source, passage, viability and delivery.

That complexity is the reason regenerative medicine cannot be evaluated—or delivered—through the lens of a single intervention. Before clinicians can talk about outcomes, they must understand what biological product is being administered, how it was manufactured and whether the patient's underlying biology is compatible with the proposed mechanism of action.

The onus is on centers to build clinical models that address these nuances, and incorporate diagnostics and conventional medicine to offer patients a holistic view to health.

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) do not fit neatly into the traditional pharmaceutical framework, which consists of a defined molecule, dose, pharmacology and indication. Rather, MSC research is considerably more heterogeneous, said Dr. Kirk Sanford, founder of Longevity Medical Institute in Los Cabos, Mexico.

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