Planning your next step? Explore our cost guides, decision FAQs and treatment and country comparisons.
On this page
- The treatments covered here
- Routes and immune cell guides
- Cells, or not cells
- Your own cells or a donor’s
- Route matters more than most people are told
- Dose, and why the numbers vary so widely
- How the cells are prepared
- What the mechanism is now thought to be
- What none of these is
- Questions that separate a real protocol from a brochure
- Where to go next
- Frequently asked questions
- Requesting a medical evaluation
“Stem cell therapy” is sold as one thing and is not. The products below differ in what they contain, where they come from, how they are given and how much evidence stands behind them — and two of the most commonly sold contain no stem cells at all.
The treatments covered here
- Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy — Early human evidence. What MSCs are, where they come from, and how they are prepared and given in published trials.
- Umbilical Cord MSC Therapy — Early human evidence. Allogeneic cells from donated cord tissue, and what donor screening involves.
- Autologous Stem Cell Therapy — Early human evidence. Your own cells, usually from fat or marrow — the harvest is a procedure in itself.
- Exosome Therapy — Preclinical evidence. Not cells at all, and regulated differently. Read this before paying for it.
- PRP Therapy — Early human evidence. Platelet-rich plasma is not stem cell therapy, though it is often sold alongside it.
Routes of administration and immune cell treatments
Explore how local injection differs from IV infusion, and how NK and dendritic cell approaches differ from stem cell treatments. These guides explain evidence and assessment questions; inclusion is not confirmation that a specific procedure is offered.
- Stem Cell Injections in Thailand — Understand local stem cell injections, what knee osteoarthritis research shows, possible risks, and questions to ask before an assessment in Thailand.
- Stem Cell IV Infusion in Thailand — Learn how stem cell IV infusion differs from local injection and transplantation, with evidence, product-specific risks and practical assessment questions.
- NK Cell Therapy in Thailand — Understand natural killer cell therapy, how CAR NK differs from CAR T, what early cancer trials can tell us and what to ask an oncology team.
- Dendritic Cell Therapy in Thailand — Explore dendritic cell cancer vaccines, the limited meaning of product-specific approvals, practical oncology questions, risks and assessment in Thailand.
Cells, or not cells
Three of these use living cells: mesenchymal stromal cells from fat, bone marrow or donated umbilical cord tissue.
Two do not. Exosome therapy uses cell-free vesicles, and PRP therapy uses concentrated platelets from your own blood. Both are frequently sold under a stem cell heading and at stem cell prices.
That distinction changes the biology, the regulation and which evidence applies. It is the first thing to establish about any quotation.
Your own cells or a donor’s
Autologous means your own, harvested from fat or marrow in a procedure with its own recovery and risks.
Allogeneic means donated — usually cord tissue after a normal birth. No harvest, younger and more uniform cells, and a donor screening process you should ask about.
Autologous versus allogeneic sets out the practical and evidential differences, including why an older patient’s own cells may be the weaker option.
Route matters more than most people are told
Injection into a joint is what nearly all the osteoarthritis evidence used. Intravenous infusion distributes systemically and is what most autoimmune and metabolic research used.
Most infused cells are trapped in the lungs on first pass, which constrains any claim about them reaching a distant organ.
Evidence collected by one route does not transfer to another. A trial that injected a knee says nothing about a drip.
Dose, and why the numbers vary so widely
Published doses span more than an order of magnitude between trials, which makes “a stem cell treatment” an almost meaningless description of what is being bought.
MSC dosage research covers the range, and a randomised trial in knee osteoarthritis that found repeated dosing outperformed a single dose.
Ask what the number is and what it is based on. A protocol that cannot answer is not following one.
The same applies to the number of sessions. Packages are priced per infusion, so the commercial incentive runs towards more of them, and only one condition on this site has a trial testing whether a second dose adds anything.
How the cells are prepared
This describes what published trials did. Ask any clinic to describe its own process, because processes differ and the difference is not cosmetic.
Tissue is collected, cells are isolated, and then expanded in culture over roughly two to four weeks. Expansion matters because a raw harvest rarely contains a therapeutic number of cells, and a treatment given without it is a different product from the one in the trials.
Before use, cells are typically characterised against surface-marker criteria, checked for viability, and tested for bacterial and fungal contamination and for endotoxin. They are then given fresh or cryopreserved and thawed.
A systematic review found that published trials frequently fail to report these details at all, which makes results hard to compare and claims of “the same as the research” hard to evaluate.
What the mechanism is now thought to be
The original rationale was replacement: cells becoming new cartilage, new heart muscle, new nerve. Serious research has largely moved away from that model.
Current thinking is paracrine — the cells act by secreting signalling molecules that modulate inflammation and influence resident cells, rather than by becoming tissue themselves.
That shift matters commercially as well as scientifically. If the cells are messengers rather than building blocks, then claims about rebuilding a joint belong to the older and weaker model. MSC immunomodulation covers what the mechanism research supports.
What none of these is
None is a haematopoietic stem cell transplant. That is a hospital procedure involving chemotherapy that genuinely resets the immune system, with serious randomised evidence and real treatment-related mortality.
HSCT versus MSC infusion sets the difference out, and it is the most misused comparison in this entire market.
If a clinic’s evidence for an infusion turns out to be a transplant trial, that is not their evidence.
Nor is any of it gene therapy, CAR-T, or embryonic stem cell treatment. Those are separate fields with separate regulation, and the names get borrowed to lend weight to products that have nothing to do with them.
Questions that separate a real protocol from a brochure
- Which source — adipose, marrow or cord — and autologous or allogeneic?
- How many cells, and what is that number based on?
- Expanded in culture, and for how long?
- What release testing is done before the cells are given?
- Which published trial used this cell type, at this dose, by this route, in my condition?
What drives the price covers how these choices show up in a quotation.
Where to go next
The conditions index lists every condition covered here with its evidence grade.
The research library holds the evidence summaries behind every clinical page.
The patient journey describes what an assessment should involve, including the possibility that the answer is no.
Frequently asked questions
Are exosomes stem cell therapy?
No. They are cell-free vesicles, regulated differently and studied far less. They are frequently sold alongside cells and at similar prices.
Is PRP the same thing?
No. Platelet-rich plasma is concentrated platelets from your own blood and contains no stem cells, though it has its own modest evidence base.
Which cell source is best?
It depends on the indication. A network meta-analysis found differences between cell types in knee osteoarthritis, so anyone saying the source does not matter is overstating.
Does an IV drip reach my knee?
Most infused cells are trapped in the lungs on first pass. Evidence from joint injection does not transfer to an infusion.
How many treatments will I need?
Protocols vary widely and are rarely justified from trial data. One randomised trial in knee osteoarthritis found repeated dosing beat a single dose; a lupus study found a second transplant added nothing.
Is this the same as a bone marrow transplant?
No, and the conflation is deliberate in a lot of marketing. A transplant involves chemotherapy and immune ablation in hospital; an infusion involves neither.
Requesting a medical evaluation
Nothing on this page establishes whether any treatment is appropriate for you. That needs your history, your imaging and your current medications read by a clinician. If you would like that review, send your records and we will tell you honestly whether there is anything worth discussing — including when the answer is no.
This page is general information, not medical advice, and does not create a doctor–patient relationship. Regenerative treatments discussed here are in most cases investigational. Discuss any treatment with a clinician who knows your history.