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What are the risks of stem cell therapy?

Published Sep 18, 2026Updated Oct 8, 2026Last verified Sep 18, 2026Requests recorded in this site’s own server logs, with the crawler identity checked by reverse DNS or IP range.Meta28Google24OpenAI6Anthropic5Ahrefs2Parallel2Perplexity2Apple1Microsoft1Yandex1First collected Sep 18, 2026Recent requestsGoogleOct 30, 2026AhrefsOct 30, 2026Meta · unverifiedOct 12, 2026Meta · unverifiedOct 12, 2026MicrosoftOct 12, 2026GoogleOct 10, 2026AhrefsOct 9, 2026GoogleOct 9, 2026Meta · unverifiedOct 9, 2026PerplexityOct 8, 2026Meta · unverifiedOct 6, 2026Meta · unverifiedOct 5, 2026
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Quick answer

The risks depend on the treatment. After a donor-cell (allogeneic) transplant, graft-versus-host disease occurs in about 35–45% of patients with related donors and 60–80% with unrelated donors. Infections are another serious risk. With unapproved products, the FDA has reported blindness, tumor formation, sepsis, neurological events, unwanted immune reactions and cells moving to unintended sites.

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Answer

In one published case series, three patients lost severe vision in both eyes after injections of their own fat-derived cells. At one year, their vision ranged from 20/200 to no light perception.[10]

Stem cells in cosmetic surgery

In cosmetic surgery, "stem cell" procedures almost always use adipose-derived stem cells. The stromal vascular fraction (SVF), which contains them, is separated from liposuctioned fat and mixed into the fat being grafted, as in stem cell breast augmentation and stem cell fat grafting.

Sources

  1. governmentImportant Patient and Consumer Information About Regenerative Medicine Therapies — U.S. Food and Drug Administration · accessed Nov 10, 2026 · Evidence page
  2. governmentApproved Cellular and Gene Therapy Products — U.S. Food and Drug Administration · accessed Nov 12, 2026 · Evidence page
  3. journalOne and a half million hematopoietic stem cell transplants: continuous and differential improvement in worldwide access with the use of non-identical family donors (Niederwieser D, et al., Haematologica 107(5):1045-1053) — Haematologica · accessed Nov 10, 2026 · Evidence page
  4. organizationStem Cell Resources for Patients — International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) · accessed Sep 22, 2026 · Evidence page
  5. governmentGraft-versus-host disease: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia — U.S. National Library of Medicine (MedlinePlus) · accessed Nov 10, 2026 · Evidence page
  6. journalMesenchymal Stem Cell Therapies Approved by Regulatory Agencies around the World (Fernández-Garza LE, et al., Pharmaceuticals 16(9):1334) — Pharmaceuticals (MDPI) · accessed Nov 10, 2026 · Evidence page
  7. governmentAlofisel: EPAR — European Medicines Agency · accessed Nov 10, 2026 · Evidence page
  8. organizationFDA Approves Remestemcel-L-Rknd for Steroid-Refractory Acute Graft-Versus-Host Disease in Pediatric Patients — Oncology Nursing Society · accessed Nov 10, 2026 · Evidence page
  9. journalNew legal category of 'advanced regenerative medicine treatment' in Korea's amended regenerative medicine law: comparative lessons from Japan (Yoon, Lee, Kim) — Stem Cell Reports · accessed Nov 10, 2026 · Evidence page
  10. journalUnproven stem cell therapy for macular degeneration (Ansari ZA, Kuriyan AE, Albini TA) — Oncotarget · accessed Nov 10, 2026 · Evidence page