Mesenchyme: Little Known Rejuvenating Healer
Rejuvenate: Make young or as if young again (Concise Oxford Dictionary).
By James Wilson, N.D., Ph.D. and Carolyn McLuskie
A unique and unusual substance called mesenchyme has arrived on the American
market with little notice or fanfare. However, you will be hearing a lot about it in the
years to come. Mesenchyme will revolutionize the way we handle health problems
because of its astonishing and well-documented ability to repair and rejuvenate damaged
cells and tissues.
Mesenchyme is undifferentiated embryonic connective tissue, the true mother
lode of cell growth and cell regeneration. Mesenchymal cells develop during the early
embryonic stages of mammalian gestation and are the source material from which most
of the mammalian body’s organs and tissues are made – everything from bones, muscles,
and connective tissue to the central nervous system (Moore 1989). What is extraordinary
about mesenchyme is that when it is ingested it migrates to the area of greatest injury in
the body. Once there, it aligns itself with the damaged cells and/or tissues, becomes
identical to them, and then starts replicating.
Regenerates Damaged Cells
The result is regeneration or replacement of the damaged cells. The implications
for speedy and full recovery from everything from broken bones to herniated discs are
enormous. We now have the potential to create healing where there was previously no
hope of recovery. Later in this article, you’ll hear how one of the authors restored
severely herniated discs that should have required surgical fusion, as well as greatly
accelerated recovery from a ruptured Achilles tendon.
Interestingly, the mechanism for organ formation from mesenchymal cells is still
present in some adult animal species. For example, it is the presence of mesenchymal
cells that allows a salamander to regenerate its tail if cut off. In the human adult, the only
mechanism where these cells normally function is in the healing of wounds (NaturPharm
1993a).
The mesenchyme available on the market in the U.S. is made from bovine
embryonic mesenchymal cells. The cells are harvested from pregnant cattle destined for
slaughter and subsequent human consumption. Only healthy fetuses from healthy cattle
are used. Because mesenchyme is, by definition, undifferentiated fetal cellular material,
it has not yet developed immune markers. It is therefore accepted by the human host
without provoking an attack by the immune system and can freely work its magic on any
number of physical injuries and traumas.
Mesenchyme has the ability to migrate to any tissue in need of repair and, once at
the site, to take on the characteristics of the healthy cell it associates with. When
mesenchyme is next to cartilage, it becomes cartilage and replaces or repairs damaged
cartilage. This is true for organ tissues too: for example, when it is next to kidney
mesenchyme becomes kidney. If one has damaged cells from a broken bone,
Copyright - Dr. James L. Wilson, February 15, 2000. All rights reserved.
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mesenchyme associates itself with the wounded tissue, assumes the specific
characteristics of that type of bone, and begins to repair the damaged tissue and create
new bone cells. It sounds incredible, but much research has verified this unique action.
Thus, mesenchyme has great potential in regenerating diseased or injured tissues of all
kinds (van den Bos 1997).
The use of mesenchyme as a therapeutic substance arises from experiments
conducted early in the 20th century by Dr. Alexis Carrel, 1912 Nobel Laureate in Biology,
who demonstrated that organic tissues could be regenerated in vitro by the addition of
fresh younger cells to the culture medium. In the 1930s, the Swiss endocrinologist Dr.
Paul Niehans developed a technique for extracting cells from animals and injecting them
into his patients to compensate for their bodies’ deficiencies (Niehans 1960). One of the
types of cell he found most beneficial was mesenchyme.
Mesenchyme used in conjunction with other whole cells and cellular extracts was
popular in Europe during the 1960s and 1970s. Many well-known celebrities and
politicians visited reputable clinics and spas, including Dr. Niehans’ Clinique La Prairie
in Clarens, Switzerland, to receive live cell therapy. Notables such as Charles de Gaulle,
Charlie Chaplin and Sir Winston Churchill were just a few of the wealthy, powerful and
famous figures of the last century who went to these spas for live cell therapy, which
included mesenchyme as a basic part of the rejuvenation process.
What makes mesenchyme so unique, special, and efficient is the fact that it is
composed of pluripotential cells, also known as mesenchymal stem cells, which have the
ability to become almost any kind of tissue or organ. Embryologically, all connective
and supportive tissues arise from mesenchymal cells (Corliss 1976). The versatility of
these pluripotential cells allows them to form cartilage, bone, muscle, connective tissue,
and organ tissue (van den Bos 1997).
In all mammals mesenchyme eventually differentiates into three embryonic
tissues – the endoderm, the mesoderm, and the ectoderm (Moore 1989). During
embryonic development, these three primitive cell types differentiate into all the body’s
organs and tissues. The endoderm forms the linings of the digestive and respiratory
tracts. The mesoderm develops into muscle, connective tissues, bone, and blood vessels.
The ectoderm differentiates into the epidermis and the nervous system. A portion of the
mesenchyme remains in the placenta and the yolk sac surrounding the embryo in the
fetus. It is this mesenchyme that is carefully separated to become the commercially
available product.
Versatile Differentiation
Mesenchymal cells migrate and differentiate in many different ways: they may
become fibroblasts (connective tissue cells that manufacture collagen), chondroblasts (a
type of differentiated fibroblast that becomes cartilage), or osteoblasts (bone forming
cells). It is most versatile and effective as a therapeutic agent when it contains cells as
undifferentiated as possible and is derived from all the mesenchymal layers (endoderm,
ectoderm, and mesoderm). Most mesenchyme used for commercial purposes is harvested
from the tissue surrounding the placenta between the 50th and the 150th day of fetal
development.
Mesenchyme’s uncanny capacity for seeking out and restoring damaged tissues
and cells of any kind makes it invaluable in illnesses where there is significant cell
damage and a need for repair. Mesenchyme speeds healing, decreases scar tissue
formation, decreases complications of healing, and heals beyond what medical
professionals typically think is possible.
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Severely Herniated Discs
A case in point: six years ago, writer McLuskie was involved in a car accident
which left her with three severely herniated discs in her neck, C5-6, C6-7, and C7-8.
Within a year of the accident, the pain was so severe that her employer allowed her to
work from home three days a week. She was unable to sit upright for more than ½ hour
at a time due to the excruciating pain. She consulted three orthopedic surgeons, all of
whom delivered the same chilling prognosis: the discs were deteriorating; there was no
recourse but spinal fusion surgery; and after that the degeneration would continue. At
least they were honest!
Soon after this news, Ms. Mcluskie interviewed Dr. James Wilson on the subject
of live cell therapy. Coincidentally, the FDA had just approved mesenchyme as a dietary
supplement. On hearing how a woman scheduled for hip surgery had successfully used
live cell therapy to restore the destroyed cartilage, avoid surgery, and walk again, Ms.
McLuskie was galvanized. Under Dr. Wilson’s supervision, she began using the same
protocol, a combination of shark cartilage and mesenchyme, taken sublingually.
Pain-free with Increased Disc Height
Part of her therapy involved neck traction for 20 minutes twice daily, to provide
room for the new disc tissue to grow. And grow it did. After four months, Ms.
McLuskie was pain-free, and has been pain-free ever since. A recent x-ray of her neck,
when compared to one taken after the accident, showed graphic proof that there was
indeed increased disc height between her formerly herniated cervical vertebrae. To
regain disc height of a herniated disc lies outside the realm of possibility of a typical
medical protocol.
In August 1999, Ms. McLuskie ruptured her left Achilles tendon during a tennis
match. The full rupture was surgically reattached and she was in a knee-high cast for
eight weeks. During this time, she took mesenchyme twice daily to restore the torn
tendon. After finding out that mesenchyme is 10 times more potent when injected, Ms.
McLuskie overcame her fear of needles and self-administered the twice-daily
subcutaneous injections.
It paid off. When the cast was removed, Ms. McLuskie’s orthopedic surgeon was
visibly shocked at the extent of her healing, as she was able to fully flex her foot.
Normally an ankle or foot immobilized for eight weeks has a very limited range of
motion and is very stiff, weak, and inflexible when the cast is removed. It typically takes
several weeks to several months for the ankle to regain its full range of motion, flexibility
and strength. The physician was so taken aback by the flexibility of the ankle that he
checked her non-injured foot to be sure that she had normal flexion, and not hyperflexion.
Unique Healing Modality
As this unique healing modality becomes better known, and more clinical
research on mesenchyme is completed, it is inevitable that more and more doctors will
familiarize themselves with its use. Then we will see mesenchyme being used by
physicians who have the best interests of their patients at heart.
Meanwhile, mesenchyme continues to restore lives. In another case, Dr. Wilson
recommended mesenchyme therapy in conjunction with liquid shark cartilage to a
professional snowboarder