Russians ignore risks, seek stem-cell therapy

MOSCOW — When Svetlana Galiyeva found a clinic offering to treat her multiple sclerosis with embryonic stem cells, she grabbed the opportunity. Twenty-thousand dollars later, she is still in a wheelchair and there is no proof her injections had anything to do with stem cells.

While scientists worldwide are only studying stem cells, dozens of Russian clinics and beauty salons claim they are already using both adult and embryonic stem cells to treat everything from wrinkles to Parkinson's disease to impotence.

Stem cells are the building blocks of the human body — immature cells that can grow into bone, muscle and other tissues. Those taken from embryos and fetuses are believed to be more versatile than stem cells from adult bone marrow and fat. But embryonic stem cells are controversial because they involve destruction of human embryos.

In leading clinics around the world, most stem-cell research is limited to the lab dish and animals. In Russia, however, it's a different story.

Galiyeva, a 40-year-old gynecologist in the Ural Mountains city of Perm, developed multiple sclerosis nine years ago. She gradually lost control over her muscles and was enduring nearly constant muscle spasms, leaving doctors pessimistic about her ability to recuperate.

"I understood what was awaiting me. It was either death or ... ," Galiyeva said by telephone from Perm.

Driven to despair, she traveled to a Moscow clinic for a series of injections that her doctors said were embryonic stem cells. It cost her about $20,000, a huge sum in a country where the average monthly salary equals about $300.

Her limbs then regained some sensation, but that didn't last. "Continuing that treatment was useless," she said bitterly.

Things didn't end there. She says her condition has improved after a new series of injections, said to contain adult stem cells, at Beauty Plaza, a private clinic in Moscow that advertises stem-cell treatment for a variety of diseases. She still cannot walk, but can stand unaided for brief periods, she said.

Meanwhile, hundreds of patients are rushing to Russian clinics and beauty salons that claim to offer embryonic-stem-cell therapy for a range of diseases as well as cosmetic therapy.

Cellulite, a clinic in central Moscow, advertises injections of stem cells from aborted fetuses into thighs, buttocks and the stomach to help women get rid of cellulite and look younger.

Yelena, a 37-year-old Moscow entrepreneur, says they worked for her.

"After giving birth my belly was hanging like a rag and I had lots of stretch marks. Now it's all gone," she said after shelling out $2,850 for injections at Cellulite. She declined to give her last name.

Andrei Yuriyev, deputy head of the Federal Health Care Inspection Service, said the law permits only extraction and storage of stem cells — not their use in treatment. Yuriyev said his service is investigating nearly 20 cosmetic clinics that claim to practice stem-cell therapy.

Experts say the procedure carries potentially dangerous side effects.

"No one has been given any licenses for injecting [stem cells] — these are only experiments. This is all being done at their own risk. This is all illegal," said Vladimir Smirnov, director of the Institute of Experimental Cardiology, who runs an adult-stem-cell bank.

He said he knew of several state research institutes attempting occasional experimental treatment using adult stem cells from bone marrow and fat. Other clinics, however, run with little regulation as to what they advertise and inject, Smirnov said.

Scientists say cultivating and isolating stem cells requires skill and expensive equipment that the clinics do not necessarily have. Therefore, what is claimed to be stem cells may be anything from a fetal-tissue extract to skin cells. Some clinics reportedly use animal stem cells.

"If I was a patient, I wouldn't want that to be done on me ... the risks are potentially very high," said Joshua Hare, director of the Cardiovascular Section at Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering in Baltimore.

But with vaguely defined regulations, dozens of clinics continue operating.

Dr. Alexander Teplyashin, head of Beauty Plaza, says he has used adult stem cells from patients' or donors' fat and bone marrow to treat diabetes, vision disorders and other diseases.

"We are taking advantage of the loopholes in the law ... what is not forbidden is allowed," he said at his clinic in downtown Moscow.