PRP, ABMAC, and NAMAD: Understanding the Various Forms of Cell Therapy

Cell therapy works by injecting live, healing cells from your body’s own blood and bone marrow into areas of your body that are injured to promote their healing. These cells can stimulate the growth of new blood vessels, regenerate new cells to repair tissues, regulate inflammation, and more.

Cell therapy works especially well if the injured area has a poor blood supply, which happens more often as patients become older.

Here at Carolina Joint and Arthritis, Dr. Austin  Yeargan uses three forms of cell therapy to treat orthopedic conditions such as plantar fasciitis, arthritis, injuries to ligaments and tendons, meniscus tears, rotator cuff injuries, and more.

While many clinics use cell therapy, Dr. Yeargan has had proven, effective results over the years and has pioneered much of this form of treatment. Here are the various forms of cell therapy on which he focuses:

PRP therapy

The first type of cell therapy is platelet-rich plasma, or PRP, which is designed to promote healing to the injured area into which it’s injected. Plasma is a component of your blood that contains platelets with growth factors and proteins that help promote a healing response.

A sample of your blood is spun in a centrifuge to separate the platelets, which are then injected into the injured area, where they stimulate the healing process.

AMBAC

Another form of cell therapy is called autologous bone marrow aspirate concentrate, or ABMAC. Bone marrow aspirate concentrate consists of stem cells found in your bone marrow that typically include growth factors and anti-inflammatory proteins that can help in healing bone and soft tissue and in reducing pain caused by tendonitis, joint injuries, and arthritis.

The therapy is called autologous because it consists of cells that come from your own body, which eliminates the risk of rejection that could occur with bone marrow cells from another donor.

NAMAD

NAMAD stands for Nanoplasty® and Mechanical Axis Deviation Procedure. It’s a therapy designed by Dr. Yeargan to transform PRP and AMBAC into an even more effective treatment to regenerate cartilage that has been damaged by injuries or arthritis. 

Dr. Yeargan harvests signaling cells from your own bone marrow, isolates PRP and engineers a growth factor concentrate through nanofiltration .  This builds a thrombin-based scaffold gel with concentrated anti-inflammatory proteins and chondroprotective proteins called TSG-6 before transplanting the  immunomodulatory injectate : the bone underneath the damaged cartilage and into the joint. The decompression of stiff subchondral bone where the arthritis starts and progresses is encouraged to remodel, restoring load bearing elasticity. This is a minimally invasive procedure done in the office with local anesthetic that is extremely well tolerated..

Once you’ve had the procedure, Dr. Yeargan recommends a custom, individualized physical therapy protocol to improve your results. We integrate low intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS)into our immunobiologic treatments to optimize results.

If you’re suffering from an orthopedic condition that cell therapy may be able to treat, Dr. Yeargan and our team at Carolina Joint and Arthritis are ready and want to help. Just call our Wilmington, North Carolina, office at 910-659-9597, or use our online scheduler to book an appointment anytime!

Where small molecules bring big results.

When it comes to orthopedic immunobiologics, experience counts for everything.