Doctors praise new stem cell legislation

Medical experts and staff working in China's burgeoning cosmetic and beauty industry have welcomed government moves to regulate the use of stem cells in both the medical field and cosmetic procedures.

The regulation, published by the Ministry of Health in January, in cooperation with the State Food and Drug Administration, requires organizations using stem cells to report and register from July to the end of this year.

It comes as experts agree that there is a lack of oversight in the cosmetic, or aesthetic industry. Stem cell treatments, touted as an answer to the aging process, have been used for some years, but there are currently no rules as to their use.

"Using stem cells is very promising, but currently the market is in disorder and traps are everywhere for customers," said Li Bin, vice president of the Beijing Association of Plastics and Aesthetics, who agreed that illegal organizations have misled customers by using the concept of stem cell.

While there are recognized medical procedures using stem cells, including bone marrow transplants, many other uses are in the developmental stage. The law will standardize research and application of stem cells, without yet giving specifics as to how that will be achieved.

According to a Beijing Times investigation yesterday, insiders said that using stem cells for cosmetic procedures is not uncommon, but it can lead to swelling, pain and even immune system diseases. Its effects have not been recognized by government organizations, and it has not been approved.

"There aren't any standards to follow, and customers are likely to be overcharged because they cannot distinguish the level of products they use," said Yan Su, an aesthetics consultant, who added the price of a treatment varies from several thousand yuan to tens of thousands of yuan.

Chen Huanran, a doctor at Peking Union Medical College specializing in plastics said that two kinds of products are usually used to cheat customers. One is an injection, and the other is cultivation of one's own stem cells.

Chen said in the latter procedure, the consultants would extract stem cells from one's own body, then claimed to remove harmful elements, and would reinject the cells into the client. Chen alleged that often, other substances would be used.

"This technology is only under test in other countries currently, and there isn't any single successful clinical application case yet," said Chen.

"Those taking the surgeries are being treated like guinea pigs," Chen noted.