Oh, The Pain of It! Fraud Alert...!!

"Today I received restorative stem cells from my good friend Greg Diienzo @ProGenaCell. The stem cells were manufactured by Invitrx here in So Cal [Southern California]."
"My friend Dr. Mathi Senapathi gave the cells to me intravenously."
"Is it possible to turn back the clock? I will let you know."
William Shatner, Montreal-born actor of Star Trek fame

Captain Kirk getting some amazing injection (probably not stem cells) from Dr. McCoy

"To be  honest, it isn't even a scientifically plausible idea."
"While I'm sure Shatner means well, it is still frustrating to have celebrities endorse procedures like this. They lead to headlines that both hep to publicize these clinics and legitimize the unproven therapies."
Timothy Caulfield, Canada Research Chair in health law and policy, University of Alberta

"I'm a close friend of Bill's. I've been a friend of Bill's for years. And  he is an intellectually exceptional, physically exceptional individual, notwithstanding his 88 years of age."
"We knew we could lawfully give the cells  here, in the U.S., which we did. [Senapathi is] a truly brilliant stem cell scientist."
"It would be like bringing in a bunch of skilled labourers into a house that needs to be remodelled, and these skilled labourers just start fixing things."
"He got 60 million [cells; a double dose. The risks are] almost nonexistent."
His first text to me [after the stem cell infusion] said, 'Geez, I rode five horses today, and I'm feeling less pain'."
Greg DiRienzo, CEO, founder, ProGenaCell

"I don't know that these [cord blood stem cells] would actually do anything beneficial when infused into an adult."
"They might do some good stuff, and they might do some stuff that's not so good."
"I'm sure William Shatner wants to keep on going and be healthy. I can't really fault him for personal choice. But the tweet makes it more likely that dozens of just regular people might give it a try, too."
"There are a lot of people I've seen who have taken out mortgages, or had these huge fundraisers with family and church, just to scrape together $10,000 or $20,000 for these kinds of unproven stem cells."
Paul Knoepfler, stem cell biologist, UC Davis School of Medicine

Well, with his wealth, William Shatner doesn't have to be concerned over spending ten or sixteen thousand dollars for stem cell treatment that he is convinced will regenerate his vital organs to make him feel and possibly look younger than his 88 years. He has informed his 2.5-million Twitter followers of setting out on this journey toward youthfulness by an advisory tweet informing that he had tens of millions of umbilical cord stem cells injected through an infusion on May 31st.

He was careful to preface his Tweet with the hashtag #ad, which was thoughtful of him.

When Mr. DiRienzo spoke of his 'friend's' venture into the Fountain of Youth territory of wishful thinking, he did mention having treated one of Shatner's horses years back, which, it appears, inspired them to toss around the idea of doing the same for Shatner. And since the recipient's tweet announcing the therapy of a double dose, his company received "quite a few" inquiries.  The infusion was "gifted" to Shatner, the ordinarily $16,000 cost for a double dose therapy, waived.

So, Shatner was paid to promote the therapy? "Gosh, no, not at all. He didn't endorse it. He just had it done. There's no endorsement there", DiReinzo hastened to explain.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the cells supplied by Invitrx Therapeutics, Inc. for human use. What Shatner received was primarily mesenchymal stem cells, which are cells capable of differentiating; growing into a variety of cell types; bone, cartilage, muscle cells and fat cells. The idea being to restore cellular function to cells having undergone "senescence". In other words the cells following the most natural of processes have grown old, and no longer divide.

Rest assured, the treatment relies on science for validation, said DiReienzo; a "huge amount" of studies have been published since the 1930s on stem cell therapies. University of Miami researchers found frail, elderly people demonstrated physical performance improvements as well as improvement in markers of inflammation after receiving meschymal stem cell therapy through their randomized, double-blind 2018 study.

According to Dr. Knoepfler, how many of the stem cells might survive post-injection is uncertain. Since they emanate biologically from another human's tissues, chances are they'll be destroyed by the receiver's immune system, since that's their function; to destroy foreign invaders. Nor is it known that if they survive, how long they would remain in the body and functioning. While the cells secrete growth factors and other molecules, one can only hypothesize as to the final outcome of the experiment, since that in effect, is what it is.

Actor William Shatner shared news of his “restorative” therapy with his 2.5 million Twitter followers, becoming the latest celebrity to seemingly endorse a medical offering of dubious benefit, critics say. - File