Ultrasonic stimulation of stem cells in vitro and in vivo

Introduction

We wish to establish strategic project partnerships for the development of processes and equipment related to enhancing stem cell therapy using ultrasonics.

MP Interconsulting is a Swiss company with a range of innovative new developments in power ultrasonics, offering standard and custom-built ultrasonic systems for a wide range of applications including sonochemistry, liquid processing (mixing and homogenization, including liquid metals) sterilization, heavy duty ultrasonic cleaning, high intensity atomizers (cold spray and vapour sources), metal atomizers, surface hardening, impregnation and coating, material aging and stress relieving, ultrasonically-assisted extrusion of plastics and metals, founding and casting (vacuum casting, homogenization, degassing) and many other new and unusual processes.

We have extensive experience with ultrasonic liquid-processing units and technology, including customized design and applications experience using “MMM Ultrasonic Technology”, as well as specialized equipment for ultrasonic massaging at significantly higher intensity than current physiotherapy systems.

We wish to make contact with companies specializing in stem cell research and commercial exploitation for the purpose of developing new and enhanced processes which will improve outcomes for patients.

Project summary

Background

Stem cell research is leading to the development of new and effective treatments for a wide variety of human disorders including neurodegenerative disorders, brain and spinal cord injuries and heart disease. Stem cells injected into the body have been found to offer a variety of healing mechanisms including differentiating into other types of tissue to replace diseased or damaged cells.

The use of ultrasonics in physiotherapy is well-known, assisting muscle relaxation and offering improved blood flow and breakdown of scar tissues, all of which can lead to faster healing. Conventional equipment operates at between 0.7 and 3.3 MHz, a relatively high frequency that is attenuated by passing through human tissue, limiting the effectiveness of this treatment for deep-tissue penetration. Changing to a lower frequency range has been unsuccessful in the past because of the risk of energy concentrations (“hot-spots”) causing patient discomfort, or worse.

New massage therapy equipment developed by MPI operates in this lower frequency regime but overcomes the hot-spot problem by rapidly modulating the frequency and amplitude of the vibrations using proprietary “MMM technology” to ensure a safe and uniform energy density.

Operating in the range 20 to 40 kHz allows our therapy equipment to penetrate several centimetres into muscle tissue and generate 3D acoustic pressure at 1 to 5 Watts per cm2. See also here:
http://mastersonics.com/documents/mmm_applications/lf-ultrasonic-revival.zip

Ultrasonics are also widely used in liquid processing to modify or enhance chemical reactions (sonochemistry). Here again MPI is actively developing new equipment for liquid processing at both laboratory and industrial scales.

At the time of writing Google shows about 394,000 results for the search: “Ultrasonic Stem Cells Stimulation”. Many of these results are recent academic papers and research work. See also here:
https://www.cellmedicine.com/

Key technologies

Multifrequency, Multimode, Modulated Sonic & Ultrasonic Vibrations (MMM Technology) can be excited in any heavy-duty conditions, producing pulse-repetitive, phase, frequency and amplitude-modulated bulk-wave-excitation covering and sweeping an extremely wide frequency band. Such sonic and ultrasonic driving creates uniform and homogenous distribution of acoustical activity on a surface and inside of the vibrating system, while avoiding the creation of stationary and standing waves, so that the whole vibrating system is fully agitated. Such multifrequency ultrasonic structural excitation is ideal for agitating arbitrary shaped liquid and solid masses at arbitrary distances and placed in open or pressurized vessels, containers, autoclaves, reservoirs and pipes, at any temperature, while maintaining optimum efficiency of electrical to acoustic energy transfer.

Our Facilities, Technology and Infrastructure (web links)

http://www.mpi-ultrasonics.com/content/advanced-sonoreactors
http://www.mastersonics.com/documents/mmm_applications/liquids_processing/

Project Objective

Our objective is to combine the known benefits of ultrasonics and stem cell therapy. Existing equipment for laboratory-scale liquid processing and for therapeutic massage can be readily adapted for use with stem cells, during growth and preparation and after injection into the patient.

Similar ultrasound generation equipment could be used for both tasks, with different applicators for therapy and laboratory.

Laboratory trials will evaluate the effects of ultrasonic agitation during stem cell culture and clinical trials will determine the benefits of ultrasonic stimulation after injection.

Methodology

1. To directly stimulate the development of stem cells in-vitro, using very specific MMM sonic and ultrasonic agitation. Find more information about MMM technology here: http://www.mpi-ultrasonics.com/content/mmm-ultrasonics
http://www.mastersonics.com/documents/mmm_applications/

2. To stimulate, activate and multiply dormant or passive stem cells that are naturally inside human (or animals) tissue using MMM ultrasonic technology (like performing an external ultrasonic massage, or using certain liquid coupling to transfer MMM ultrasonic vibrations). MMM ultrasonic-therapy is in the same time healing wounds, removing pain and stimulating internal stem cells growth and activity.
https://www.tenniselbow.eu/clinical-trials/

Conclusion:

We can combine active stem cell injection with an external, MMM ultrasonic agitation of human tissue to achieve faster results and better outcomes by facilitating stem cell multiplication, propagation and tissue reconstruction activity. With MMM ultrasonic agitation, we can also create optimized conditions and accelerate the growth of specific stem cells in laboratory conditions.

The advantage of MMM ultrasonic technology is spatially uniform agitation and excitation of the tissues undergoing treatment. This is not the case with other ultrasonic methods for tissue agitation. The consequence of uniform spatial excitation is that MMM agitation is much more efficient compared to other ultrasonic methods.

If you are interested in this project proposal, please contact MPI to discuss the next steps.
http://www.mpi-ultrasonics.com/content/contact-us

More information

For more documents and videos please see the Massager section of our downloads site.

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