One of my Top 20 Predictions for Stem Cells for 2017 was that we’d see more instances of fake stem cell news.
One type of stem cell fake news consists of promotional press releases that seek to recruit paying customers for unproven stem cell “treatments” based on made up or exaggerated claims about safety and efficacy or about the stem cell clinic’s credentials.
Another kind of fake stem cell news is more ideologically based and is mainly practiced by anti-embryonic stem cell (ESC) websites that have news-like items stating that ESCs have been proven not to work at all or to always cause tumors, while adult stem cells will save the world.
For whatever reason Google sometimes even includes both these types of bogus items in its news feed and I’m sure the same thing happens on Facebook. I’m going to be posting about instances of fake stem cell news over the course of this year.
Seen what you think might be stem cell fake news? Let me know.
Update: Another issue is fake stem cells. More and more marketing for “stem cells” is not actually for real stem cells. Sometimes it is for PRP or other things not even remotely like stem cells. In other cases, the marketing is for stem cells, but the products like have either no stem cells in it or no living cells at all. In particular, the marketers for perinatal products like amniotic, umbilical, and placental products are thought to sometimes just contain cell debris. I’ve called these “zombie stem cells” at times. See this newer post: Wanted both dead & alive: amniotic stem cell clinics sell zombie cells?