Aesthetic medicine is rapidly developing in the direction of searching for new technologies and methods to slow down the aging process as much as possible, restore damaged tissues and organs. One of the most interesting areas is modern biotechnologies concerning the use of platelet-rich plasma, autologous stem cells from patients.
Alexander Melerzanov, Ph.D., Dean of the FBMF, Director of Medicine at the Center for Living Systems.
ED. What do you think about regenerative approaches in aesthetic medicine? Which of them is the future?
А.М. Regenerative Medicine – This is a fairly rapidly developing branch of medicine, including its aesthetic part. The main approaches that are currently available are aimed at increasing the regenerative potential of the skin – if we are talking about aesthetics – due to not only external, but also internal influences. In my opinion, a modern cosmetologist – this is a person who not only knows what he can do externally on the skin, he is also a person who can probably recommend some kind of change, say, in diet, in lifestyle, in something else. That is, the approach should be broader, and the cosmetologist, in principle, should have some therapeutic, general medical knowledge in order to provide full assistance.
ED. How widely is platelet-rich plasma used in aesthetic medicine? What do you think is the effectiveness of this regenerative method?
А.М. Biotechnological approaches, which include enriched plasma, are quite relevant, these are promising methods. In general, everything related to the use of biologically active substances, which include platelet-rich plasma, various growth factors, etc. – it is really very effective, it affects the skin, it brings really outstanding results. But you need to understand – this is a biological method, it also carries some risks, so you should always approach it very carefully and always remember that everything related to growth factors requires, first of all, concern for the safety of the patient and good knowledge of your subject.
The subject of research should be known in order to first of all protect your patient from side effects, from misuse, especially considering that now biotechnologies are developing very rapidly, and new drugs do not always have time to go through the entire procedure of peer review, registration, and so on. And sometimes they are offered to patients.
In my opinion, this is a big mistake, and you should still use well-known certified proven methods.
Platelet-Rich Plasma – in principle, this is a method that has been used for a long time, and so far we have only positive results. So in general, I think the method is safe to support.
Especially considering that there are still new trends in the combined use of different methods, which include platelet-rich plasma.
ED What is your opinion about stem cell therapy in aesthetic medicine? What are the prospects for this regenerative method?
A.M. The method has a bright future, but a full evidence base is required. Patient safety must be ensured. There are a lot of myths about stem cells, and even though there is a huge amount of research going on, I believe that its use should be approached with sufficient caution, and it should be done very carefully. In addition, there are different sources of stem cells, and today we believe that we are mostly talking about autologous, that is, our own stem cells. We are in no way talking about the use of embryonic and fetal stem cells.
There is also the concept of allogeneic cells, that is, from another person. There are a number of ethical issues, security issues and everything else. Therefore, today, of course, we are making the most efforts to develop the use of autologous stem cells, that is, our own.
And the most promising direction – these are the so-called induced pluripotent stem cells – when a person's own cells are taken from him, they are transferred to the state of an embryonic cell and then transferred back to the state of exactly the cells that are needed.
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