Partners will investigate stromal vascular fraction cells, the basis of IntelliCell’s product.

IntelliCell BioSciences inked a sponsored research agreement with the Institute for Cell Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (ICERM) at the University of Florida. A portion of the collaborative work will be to explore the physiological characteristics of stromal vascular fraction cells (VFCs), which form the basis of IntelliCell’s product.

IntelliCell also intends to explore combination therapies with bioengineered products under development. The firm believes that its product is an efficient cellular delivery platform for a variety of therapeutic applications and will look to partner with technology developers.

“Their technology is innovative and appears to hold promise for future regenerative medicine applications,” comments Jon Dobson, Ph.D., director of ICERM and professor of biomedical engineering and biomaterials at the University of Florida. “The use of adult autologous stem cells to repair and regenerate tissues are of great interest to personalized medicine researchers.”

IntelliCell leverages adult autologous vascular cells derived from the blood vessels in adult adipose tissue. It has developed a protocol to separate adult autologous vascular cells from adipose tissue without the use of enzymes.

The autologous VFCs developed by IntelliCell have advantages including that the process does not culture, grow, or expand the cells in any way. The IntelliCell method also results in higher cellular yields when compared to other methods in clinical research use today, according to the company.

A patient visiting the clinic will receive a miniliposuction procedure under local anesthetic, and the physician will remove approximately 60 cc of adipose tissue from the abdomen. The IntelliCell process uses ultrasound to separate the network of capillaries from the adipocytes. The vascular tissue, after it has been separated from the adipocytes, is washed in a sterile area and placed in a centrifuge and spun at low levels for several minutes. The actual fat tissue that was obtained via the liposuction procedure is discarded. The autologous vascular cells drop to the bottom of the collection container and are prepared for quality testing. IntelliCell uses a flow cytometer to check each sample for cell viability and the cell count for each patient.

The entire process takes about one hour to complete. The cells are then returned to the physician and the patient treatment can begin. Some of the cells are placed into an IV drip bag for administration. The IV treatment takes about 20 minutes. Depending on the areas being treated and the type of injury, cells can also be placed locally.

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