Put Your Menstrual Flow to Work with C’elle

C’elle is a new service from Cryo-Cell International, Inc., an Oldsmar, Florida umbilical cord blood banking firm, that promises to collect and store stem cells from a woman’s menstrual flow for possible future use.
Here’s what the firm says about its collection kit, delivered to your home by FedEx, and the possible benefits of the service:

Inside, you’ll find everything needed for you to collect and send your C’elle menstrual stem cells for processing and preservation, including a menstrual cup, collection tubes, prepaid FedEx airbill for return shipment to Cryo-Cell, and comprehensive instructions for use.
The new service, called C’elle^sm (pronounced “C-L”), enables women to collect menstrual flow containing stem cells, which can be cryogenically preserved in a manner similar to stem cells from umbilical cord blood and may one day serve as a potential source for promising regenerative therapies to treat heart disease, diabetes, neurological disorders like spinal cord injury, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, in addition to cosmeceutical applications such as anti-aging therapies, to name a few. However, realistically, it may take several years for these menstrual stem cells to be developed into potential widely-available commercial therapies. The C’elle service is based on Cryo-Cell’s intellectual property, for which patent applications are pending, related to the procurement, processing, isolation and cryo-preservation of these unique menstrual stem cells.
The unique C’elle service is being offered following Cryo-Cell’s discovery of new scientific evidence that menstrual flow, which results from the shedding of the uterine lining (endometrium) during menstruation, contains millions of stem cells that have many properties and characteristics similar to those of both bone marrow and embryonic stem cells. Dr. Amit N. Patel, Director of Cardiac Stem Cell Therapies at the McGowan Institute, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, along with other independent research laboratories, studied these menstrual stem cells, which have demonstrated the capability in vitro to differentiate into neural, cardiac, bone, cartilage, and adipose cells, and possibly other cell types. Dr. Patel’s preliminary findings were presented on October 21, 2007 at TCT 2007, the annual scientific symposia of Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics, in a seminar entitled “Novel Cell Sources for Myocyte Repair and Replacement”.

The service, and its potential but unproven benefits are already drawing criticisms from the experts. This doesn’t mean that such a business will not be a success: the same kind of criticism has been directed against umbilical cord stem cell collecting, but hundreds of thousands of customers chose to buy it anyway.
Product page: C’elle: Welcome – Stem Cells in Menstrual Blood – Preserving Stem Cells …