Horses lead humans in stem cells race

"The goal of what we're doing is to allow tissue regeneration rather than repair through the formation of scar tissue," VetCell Chief Operating Officer David Mountford said.

FULL PERFORMANCE

So far, more than 500 horses have been treated by VetCell and clinical follow-up suggests the technique doubles the chance of an injured horse returning to full performance.

Each procedure costs the owner an average of 1,600 to 1,700 pounds but is potentially a good investment if it gets a valuable animal back on the racetrack.

Owners and trainers are reluctant to advertise the injury records of their horses but Mountford said 10 horses in Britain's Cheltenham Festival last month and one runner in the Grand National had undergone the treatment.

A similar system that extracts stem cells from fat rather than bone marrow has been developed by California's Vet-Stem Inc. and has also shown good results.

Racehorse owners, of course, are used to a gamble and have been happy to take a punt on a technology that promises to fix animals worth thousands, if not millions, of dollars. VetCell has already treated horses throughout Europe, North and South America, the Middle East, Japan, South Africa and Australia.

It remains to be seen how quickly human athletes rush to test the same stem cell regeneration system.