Regenerative Medicine in Urbandale: What PRP and Wharton's Jelly Actually Do

Quick summary: "Regenerative medicine" is one of the most-searched — and most-misused — terms in orthopedic and pain care. At Advanced Spine Health Center in Urbandale, IA, we offer two biologic injection therapies in this category, platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and Wharton's Jelly, and we'd rather explain exactly what each one is and isn't than let a marketing term do the talking. You'll also see the phrase "stem cells" used throughout this page, because it's how a lot of patients search for this topic — but we'll be direct about where that word applies accurately and where it doesn't.

On this page: What "Regenerative Medicine" Means  |  The "Stem Cell" and Biologic Injection Landscape  |  What the Evidence Shows  |  PRP vs. Wharton's Jelly  |  Conditions We Treat  |  How We Approach It  |  Who's a Candidate  |  FAQ

Key Takeaways

• "Regenerative medicine" is a marketing umbrella, not a specific treatment — it covers several very different injection therapies with different sources, mechanisms, and evidence.
• Advanced Spine Health Center offers two of these therapies: PRP and Wharton's Jelly. We don't offer bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC), placental-derived products, or fat-derived ("adipose stem cell") therapy.
• Neither PRP nor Wharton's Jelly is FDA-approved specifically for orthopedic or pain conditions. That doesn't mean they have no value — it means the evidence, not the label, should guide the decision.
• "Stem cells" gets used loosely to describe several of these products. A compliant Wharton's Jelly allograft is regulated as a minimally manipulated tissue product, not a living stem-cell drug — we explain why that distinction matters below.
• Like PRP, Wharton's Jelly works best as part of a broader plan that also addresses the structural and functional issues behind an injury, not as a stand-alone fix.

What Does "Regenerative Medicine" Actually Mean?

"Regenerative medicine" is a broad term that gets applied to almost any injection therapy that isn't a corticosteroid or a painkiller. In marketing, it's often used to imply that a treatment regrows or replaces damaged tissue the way a salamander regrows a limb. That's not an accurate description of what any of these injections actually do.

The therapies grouped under this label — PRP, Wharton's Jelly, bone marrow aspirate concentrate, fat-derived products, and others — don't rebuild tissue from scratch. What they may do, depending on the specific product and condition, is deliver concentrated biological material (platelets, growth factors, structural proteins) to an area of damaged tissue to support the body's own repair process. That's a real and potentially useful mechanism. It's a different claim than "regenerates your cartilage" or "reverses arthritis," and the distinction isn't just semantic — it's the difference between an accurate description and a claim the evidence doesn't support.

Because of that, we generally avoid describing our injection services as "regenerative medicine" and prefer the term biologic injection therapies — it's a more accurate description of what's actually happening: introducing a biologic material to support healing, not regenerating tissue on command.

The same accuracy problem applies to the term "stem cells." Several products in this category — including umbilical cord and Wharton's Jelly allografts — are marketed with language suggesting they deliver live, functioning stem cells to the injection site. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has published consumer guidance specifically warning that many products marketed this way are unapproved, and that stem cells, umbilical cord products, and Wharton's Jelly are not FDA-approved for treating orthopedic conditions, back or joint pain, or other musculoskeletal issues.¹ We think patients deserve to know that before deciding whether a treatment is right for them — not find it out afterward.

The "Stem Cell" and Biologic Injection Landscape

If you've researched this topic, you've probably come across several different products that all get lumped into "regenerative medicine." Here's what each one actually is, and which ones we use.

Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) — Offered at Advanced Spine Health Center

PRP is made from your own blood. A sample is drawn and spun in a centrifuge to concentrate the platelets, which are then injected into the injured tissue. It contains no donor tissue and, by definition, no stem cells — platelets aren't stem cells. Its value comes from the growth factors and signaling proteins platelets release, which may support the body's healing response.

Wharton's Jelly — Our Preferred Option

Wharton's Jelly is a gelatinous connective tissue found in the umbilical cord, donated and processed into an injectable allograft. We've chosen it as the one non-PRP biologic product we offer, in part because it's donor tissue — it doesn't require an additional harvesting procedure from the patient, unlike bone marrow aspirate or fat-derived products, which do. More on what it actually contains — and doesn't — below.

Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate (BMAC) — Not Offered Here

BMAC is drawn directly from a patient's own bone marrow, usually from the hip, and concentrated before injection. It does contain a small number of the patient's own marrow-derived progenitor cells along with growth factors. It requires its own aspiration procedure, separate from the injection itself. Advanced Spine Health Center does not currently offer BMAC.

Placental-Derived Products — Not Offered Here

Similar to Wharton's Jelly, placental-derived products (such as amniotic fluid or placental tissue allografts) are donated birth tissue processed into an injectable product. They fall under the same FDA guidance and the same "stem cell" marketing concerns described above. We don't offer these.

Fat-Derived ("Adipose Stem Cell") Therapy — Not Offered Here

This approach removes a small amount of a patient's own fat tissue, typically by a liposuction-type procedure, and processes it to isolate a mix of cells. It's also one of the categories the FDA has scrutinized most closely, since some clinics offering it have made unsupported claims about treating serious diseases. We don't offer this at Advanced Spine Health Center.

What the Evidence Actually Shows

PRP: The Research

Healing requires a coordinated sequence — inflammation, cellular signaling, tissue repair, and remodeling — and platelets play a central role in that sequence through the growth factors they release. PRP concentrates those platelets and delivers them directly to an injury, with the goal of supporting a stronger, better-organized healing response. It isn't designed to instantly repair tissue; it's designed to improve the environment tissue heals in.

PRP has a meaningfully larger body of clinical research behind it than most other biologic injections. A systematic review and meta-analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found PRP improved pain and function for many patients with mild-to-moderate knee osteoarthritis.² A separate meta-analysis in the American Journal of Sports Medicine found PRP outperformed hyaluronic acid injections for knee osteoarthritis on several outcome measures.³ For chronic tendon conditions — tennis elbow, patellar tendon injuries, rotator cuff–related pain — a widely cited meta-analysis in the same journal found benefit in many, though not all, studied conditions.⁴ Evidence quality still varies by condition, and PRP isn't expected to reverse advanced arthritis or replace treatment when there's significant structural joint damage.

Wharton's Jelly: The Research

Here's where the "stem cell" framing matters most. Wharton's Jelly does contain living, functioning stem cells — inside the umbilical cord, in a laboratory setting, in the research literature. But that's not automatically what's in the vial used in a clinic injection. To be regulated under the FDA's lower-oversight pathway for tissue products — the pathway that allows a product like this to be used clinically without going through full drug approval — an allograft has to be "minimally manipulated" and generally can't be intended to function as a living cellular product.¹ In practice, that means a compliant Wharton's Jelly product is better understood as a processed tissue matrix — extracellular matrix proteins, structural scaffolding material, and growth factors — rather than a live stem-cell treatment. That's the honest mechanism: it appears to work, when it does, by providing structural and biochemical support to damaged tissue, not by delivering a colony of stem cells that differentiate into new tissue at the injection site.

Human clinical trial evidence for Wharton's Jelly in orthopedic use is considerably thinner than PRP's — most of the supporting research is mechanistic or laboratory-based rather than large controlled clinical trials in patients. We think that's important to say plainly rather than imply otherwise. Wharton's Jelly is not FDA-approved for treating orthopedic or joint conditions.¹ We use it because we've seen it add value in appropriate cases, particularly where more tissue support seems warranted than PRP alone provides — but we're not going to tell you the evidence is as established as it is for PRP, because it isn't.

PRP vs. Wharton's Jelly: How They Compare

Neither is universally "better" — they're doing different jobs, and PRP and Wharton's Jelly may sometimes be used together when more extensive tissue support seems appropriate for a given injury.

Conditions PRP and Wharton's Jelly May Help

Both therapies are considered for tendon, ligament, and joint conditions that haven't fully responded to conservative care — including chronic tendon injuries, joint pain and mild-to-moderate osteoarthritis, and some soft-tissue and low back conditions. The details of who's a good candidate, and how PRP specifically is used for different areas of the body, are covered in depth on our PRP injections page. As with PRP, Wharton's Jelly isn't the right fit for every diagnosis — severe structural damage, an unclear diagnosis, or significant neurological involvement usually calls for a different evaluation path first.

How We Approach Biologic Injections at Advanced Spine Health Center

We built our practice around Chiropractic BioPhysics (CBP), which means we put real weight on the structural and functional issues that often cause tissue to break down in the first place — spinal alignment, leg length, pelvic tipping, posture, and movement patterns. An injection, whether it's PRP or Wharton's Jelly, can support healing tissue. It can't fix a structural problem that's been quietly overloading that tissue for years. We build injection therapies into a broader plan that also addresses structure and function, rather than treating the injection as the whole plan.

That same evidence-first approach is why we've chosen to offer Wharton's Jelly rather than BMAC, placental products, or fat-derived therapy. We'd rather add a service because the rationale and evidence support it than because it's part of a broader "regenerative medicine" trend. If the evidence on other options shifts, that's something we'll revisit — but we're not going to offer a therapy just because it's marketable.

Who's a Good Candidate?

Good candidates for PRP or Wharton's Jelly generally have a clearly identified source of pain, mild-to-moderate tissue damage, and a condition that hasn't improved enough with conservative care alone. A thorough evaluation — not just "where does it hurt" — determines whether either therapy fits your situation, or whether something else, including referral for further medical evaluation, makes more sense. Neither treatment is a good fit when the diagnosis is unclear, when there's significant structural damage that may need surgical evaluation, or when symptoms suggest a different underlying problem.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is regenerative medicine the same as stem cell therapy?
Not exactly. "Regenerative medicine" is a broad marketing term covering several different injection therapies, only some of which involve any stem cell content at all — and even those often don't deliver living, functioning stem cells once processed into a compliant clinical product.

Do PRP or Wharton's Jelly injections contain living stem cells?
PRP does not — it's concentrated platelets from your own blood, and platelets aren't stem cells. Wharton's Jelly, in its regulated, minimally manipulated allograft form, is better described as a tissue-support and growth-factor product rather than a live stem-cell treatment.

What's the difference between PRP and Wharton's Jelly?
PRP uses your own blood to deliver concentrated growth factors. Wharton's Jelly is a donated umbilical cord tissue product used mainly for its structural, scaffold-like support. See the comparison table above for a full breakdown.

Do you offer bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC) or fat-derived ("adipose stem cell") therapy?
No. Advanced Spine Health Center offers PRP and Wharton's Jelly. We don't currently offer BMAC, placental-derived products, or fat-derived therapy.

Is regenerative medicine FDA-approved?
Neither PRP nor Wharton's Jelly is FDA-approved specifically for treating orthopedic or joint conditions. That's true across this category of treatment, not something unique to our office — it's part of why we think an honest conversation about the evidence matters more than the label.

Is it safe?
Because PRP is made from your own blood, allergic reaction risk is low. Wharton's Jelly, as donated tissue, carries the general risks associated with any injection procedure. Neither is right for every patient or every condition, which is why an evaluation comes before a recommendation.

Is PRP or Wharton's Jelly covered by insurance?
These are generally considered elective and are commonly not covered by traditional insurance. Coverage varies by plan.

Regenerative Medicine Options in Urbandale, Iowa

If you're trying to sort through "regenerative medicine" marketing and figure out what's actually backed by evidence, we'd rather give you a straight answer than a sales pitch. The first step is a comprehensive evaluation — one that looks at the structural and functional picture, not just the painful spot — to determine whether PRP, Wharton's Jelly, or a different approach entirely fits your situation.

Advanced Spine Health Center provides PRP and Wharton's Jelly injections in Urbandale, Iowa, serving West Des Moines, Waukee, Des Moines, Johnston, Grimes, Clive, Beaverdale, and surrounding communities.

Contact our office to schedule an evaluation →

About the Author

Dr. Kyle Ruehle, DC, has practiced chiropractic care in the Des Moines area since 2016, specializing in Chiropractic BioPhysics (CBP), a certified structural correction technique focused on restoring proper spinal curvature and alignment.

References

1. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Important Patient and Consumer Information About Regenerative Medicine Therapies. FDA.gov. Updated April 2024. https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/consumers-biologics/important-patient-and-consumer-information-about-regenerative-medicine-therapies
2. Laudy ABM, Bakker EWP, Rekers M, Moen MH. Efficacy of platelet-rich plasma injections in osteoarthritis of the knee: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Br J Sports Med. 2015;49:657–672. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25416198/
3. Belk JW, Kraeutler MJ, Houck DA, Goodrich JA, Dragoo JL, McCarty EC. Platelet-rich plasma versus hyaluronic acid for knee osteoarthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Am J Sports Med. 2021;49(1):249–260. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32302218/
4. Fitzpatrick J, Bulsara M, Zheng MH. The effectiveness of platelet-rich plasma in the treatment of tendinopathy: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials. Am J Sports Med. 2017;45(1):226–233. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27268111/

This article is for educational purposes and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Neither PRP nor Wharton's Jelly is FDA-approved for the treatment of orthopedic conditions. Always consult a qualified physician regarding your specific condition.