What is a cell therapy center? Who does what, and what happens to the cells before they reach you

Short answer

“Cell therapy center” sounds like one place. It rarely is. Behind a stem cell treatment there are usually three separate parties: a laboratory that sources, processes and tests the cells; a clinic where they are applied; and a treating physician who decides whether the therapy fits your case and administers it. Each holds its own licence and carries its own responsibility.

Knowing which is which lets you ask the right question of the right person. This article follows the cells from the tissue they come from to the room where you receive them.

First: two very different things share the name

Search for “cell therapy center” and two worlds come back mixed together:

• Hospital bone marrow transplant centers. They treat blood cancers with hematopoietic (blood-forming) stem cells. It involves chemotherapy and a hospital stay, and it lives in large hospitals.
• Regenerative medicine centers. They work with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) for joints, orthopedics, skin and wellness. It is an outpatient procedure — an injection or an IV.

This article is about the second kind, which is what we coordinate. If you need a bone marrow transplant for a blood cancer, the route is your hematologist and a transplant hospital.

Step 1: where the cells come from

Mesenchymal stem cells are taken from tissues that naturally contain them. The most common sources:

Source	How it is obtained	Your own or a donor’s
Umbilical cord tissue	From a cord donated after a birth, with the mother’s consent	Donor (allogeneic)
Adipose tissue (fat)	A small liposuction on the patient	Usually your own (autologous)
Bone marrow	A needle draw, usually from the hip	Your own or a donor’s

Autologous means the cells come from your body: the risk of an immune reaction is lower, but you need a harvesting procedure first, and how many cells you get — and how well they behave — depends on your age and health. Allogeneic means they come from a screened donor: no harvesting procedure for you, and the batch can be tested before you arrive.

What to ask: which tissue do my cells come from, and are they mine or a donor’s? If a donor’s, how was that donor screened?

Step 2: what the laboratory does with them

This is where most of what you never see gets decided. Broadly, a cell therapy laboratory:

1. Isolates the mesenchymal cells from the tissue.
2. Grows and multiplies them. A tissue sample holds relatively few cells; reaching tens of millions means expanding them in culture. Each round of growth is called a passage. Cells kept in culture too long can age and lose capacity, so the passage number is worth knowing.
3. Confirms they are what they claim to be. In 2006 the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT) set minimum criteria: the cells carry certain surface markers (CD73, CD90, CD105), lack markers typical of blood cells (such as CD34, CD45 and HLA-DR), and can be turned into bone, cartilage and fat in the lab. The test that reads the markers is called flow cytometry.
4. Confirms they are safe. Sterility testing (bacteria, fungi and mycoplasma), infectious-disease screening of the donor, and genetic-stability testing of the cells.
5. Counts the living cells. The count says how many there are; viability says what share is alive. Both matter — a dose of dead cells is not the dose.
6. Stores and ships them. Depending on the product, cells travel frozen or chilled, and arrive at the clinic with their paperwork.

All of that ends in one document: the batch certificate. It records what was done to your batch and what the results were.

What to ask: can I see the certificate for my batch, with count, viability, identity and sterility? Who signs it?

Step 3: where, and by whom, they are applied

The clinic is the physical facility. It needs its own government licence (COFEPRIS) for the activity it performs, in that company’s name and at that address. The treating physician is the person who reviews your history, decides whether the therapy makes sense for you, administers it — into a joint, sometimes ultrasound-guided, or by IV — and follows up afterwards.

The physician is also the one who can tell you no. A serious evaluation is one that is allowed to end in “this isn’t right for you.”

What to ask: what is the name of the physician who will treat me, and their cédula profesional (Mexican medical licence) number? Do they evaluate me before I pay and travel?

How to choose a stem cell clinic in Mexico walks through checking each licence and each cédula in the official registers, and is stem cell therapy legal in Mexico? covers exactly what each type of licence authorizes.

Who answers for what

Party	Responsible for	Document that backs it
Laboratory	Sourcing, processing, testing and shipping the cells	The lab’s sanitary licence + the batch certificate
Clinic	The facility where treatment is given	The clinic’s government licence (COFEPRIS)
Treating physician	Whether you are a candidate, the procedure, and follow-up	Cédula profesional (searchable on Mexico’s SEP register)
Kern Stem Care	Vetting the three above, coordinating appointments, travel and stay, and staying with you throughout	—

What this looks like in our network

We publish it rather than ask you to take it on trust:

• The laboratory is NAO Biotechnology, Licencia Sanitaria No. 2414150080080416. Every batch goes through microbiological screening (bacteria, mycoplasma, fungi and yeast), infectious-disease serology, flow cytometry for viability and identity, karyotype analysis for genetic stability, and oncogene-expression screening. The order is placed once your treatment is paid for, and your batch reaches the clinic with its own signed Certificate of Quality.
• Quality is signed off by biologist Teresita Irais Álvarez Olvera, cédula profesional 10506533.
• In Cancún, you are treated by Dr. Beleguí Sánchez Guzmán, Médico Cirujano, cédula profesional 11082915.

Every number is on what you can verify. Kern Stem Care is a coordination agency: medical care is delivered directly by the independent, licensed provider, while we coordinate access, travel and support.

FAQ

Where is stem cell therapy given in Mexico?

At regenerative medicine clinics holding a government licence (COFEPRIS), by a physician with a cédula profesional. There are clinics in several cities — Cancún, Tijuana, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey. What changes from one to the next is the clinic, the lab that supplies it, and the physician. If you are comparing destinations, see cost in Cancún vs. Tijuana vs. the U.S..

Are my own cells better than donor cells?

There is no single answer. Your own cells lower the risk of an immune reaction, but need an extra procedure and depend on your age and health. Donor cells come from screened tissue and skip that step. Which suits your case is the treating physician’s call.

How long do the cells stay in the body?

Research suggests most applied mesenchymal cells do not stay long — days to weeks — and that much of their effect comes from the signals they release while they are there, rather than from settling in to build new tissue. That is why changes, when they come, tend to take weeks or months; see how long it takes to see results.

Is getting stem cell injections a good idea?

It depends on your case — which is exactly the question the treating physician answers at your evaluation. Many regenerative therapies are considered investigational and are not approved by the U.S. FDA or Health Canada for specific conditions. Results vary from person to person and none are guaranteed. The real risks are laid out in is stem cell therapy safe?.

Can I ask to see my batch certificate before treatment?

Yes, and you should. It is a routine document at a serious lab, and it should be no trouble to show you.

Further reading

• Minimal criteria for defining multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells — Dominici et al., International Society for Cellular Therapy, Cytotherapy 2006
• Important patient and consumer information about regenerative medicine therapies — U.S. Food and Drug Administration
• Verify a physician’s cédula profesional — Mexico’s official government register (Secretaría de Educación Pública)

Have someone look at your case

Tell us what you want treated and we will show you which lab, which clinic and which physician would be behind it — with their numbers. Get your free evaluation →