The Mayo Clinic Multiple System Atrophy Trial: What Physicians Need to Know (NCT05167721)

Multiple system atrophy is a rare, rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disease with no disease-modifying treatment, which makes the question of preserving future options unusually pressing for the patients and physicians who face it. Mayo Clinic’s Phase 2 trial, NCT05167721, is studying autologous adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells administered intrathecally in MSA. What follows is what treating physicians […]
Active Clinical Trials Using Adipose-Derived MSCs: A 2026 Physician Reference

The clinical case for banking autologous adipose tissue rests on a research pipeline, and that pipeline is best understood from primary sources rather than summaries. As of 2026, active trials are studying adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells across several condition categories, from neurodegenerative disease to musculoskeletal and inflammatory conditions. What follows is a physician reference to […]
Adipose Banking and the Orthopedic Physician: Harvest Documentation, Consent, and the SB 1768 Scope

Florida SB 1768 names orthopedic conditions as one of only three categories within its authorized scope for non-FDA-approved stem cell therapy, alongside wound care and pain management. That places orthopedic surgeons and sports medicine physicians in Florida closer to the center of the state’s framework than any other specialty. For a physician already harvesting adipose […]
FDA Warning Letters in Regenerative Medicine: The Pattern Physicians Must Recognize

The FDA has issued warning letters to stem cell and HCT/P providers for years, and the violations cited fall into a recognizable pattern, almost all of them rooted in 21 CFR Part 1271. Reading that pattern is more useful to a physician than memorizing any single letter, because it shows precisely what the agency looks […]
The FTC Stem Cell Enforcement Pattern: What the Stem Cell Institute of America Case Means for Every Provider

In January 2025, federal court orders permanently banned the co-founders of the Stem Cell Institute of America from marketing regenerative medicine treatments and imposed more than $5.1 million in penalties and consumer refunds. The action was brought jointly by the Federal Trade Commission and the Georgia Attorney General. For any physician who markets stem cell […]
Homologous Use: The Other 361 Criterion Physicians Cannot Ignore

Minimal manipulation gets most of the attention, but homologous use is the criterion that catches physicians off guard most often. A physician can use a properly processed, genuinely minimally manipulated tissue product and still convert it into a 351 biologic, requiring an IND, simply by using it for a purpose outside the tissue’s basic function. […]
Informed Consent for Stem Cell Banking: What Physicians Must Document Across States

Informed consent has always been an ethical and legal baseline in medicine. In non-FDA-approved stem cell therapy, it is now also a specific statutory compliance requirement, and the elements differ by state. Florida SB 1768, Utah’s amended Section 58-1-512, and Wyoming SF 48 each condition lawful practice on a written consent that contains particular elements, […]
Current Good Tissue Practice (CGTP): The FDA Standard Your Lab Partner Must Meet

If a physician banks or processes a patient’s adipose tissue through a third-party lab, the quality of that tissue is governed by a federal standard called Current Good Tissue Practice. CGTP lives in Subpart D of 21 CFR Part 1271 and applies to every registered HCT/P establishment, including those making 361 products that need no […]
FDA Establishment Registration for HCT/P Providers: What It Is and Why It Is Not Optional

A common assumption among physicians entering regenerative medicine is that 361 HCT/Ps carry no FDA obligations because they require no pre-market approval. That is wrong, and the misunderstanding can be expensive. 21 CFR Part 1271 imposes registration, listing, and Current Good Tissue Practice requirements on every establishment that manufactures HCT/Ps, including those that qualify under […]
The Multi-State Stem Cell Law Map: Where Your State Stands in June 2026

Until 2017, no U.S. state had a law specifically addressing non-FDA-approved stem cell therapy at the provider level. Since California broke that ground, the count has grown to at least half a dozen states with disclosure or authorization frameworks, and the pace is accelerating: Florida, Utah, and Wyoming all enacted or expanded frameworks across 2025 […]