AT BIRTH, Rafa was like any other baby, healthy and nothing out of the ordinary. But after four months, he started to have seizures, which came anytime of the day. It became more frequent as days went by, causing alarm to his parents.

It took a while before doctors finally pinned down the cause of the seizure. Their findings: a rare skin disorder called cutis laxa. It is characterized by skin that is loose, hanging, wrinkled, and lacking in elasticity. The loose skin is often most noticeable on the face, resulting in a prematurely aged appearance.

For updates from around the country, follow Sun.Star on Twitter

In the case of Rafa, he looked like an old man in a baby's body. And by the symptoms he was showing, he did not much have time to live. Doctors said that when cutis laxa is severe, it can affect the internal organs. The lungs, heart, intestines, or arteries may be affected with a variety of severe impairments. Most babies with the condition are given only less than a year to live.

Desperate for a cure for their first-born, the parents took the advice of their son's pediatrician, treat the baby through regenerative medicine.

Regenerative medicine is an innovative program that involves the engineering of living cells, tissues and organs to preserve and enhance organ function and improve the quality of life. Proponents of the treatment say it can be used to prevent disease and maintain wellness, as well as restore organ function lost or impaired due to disease, injury, or aging.

Actually, regenerative medicine is an innovative procedure that allows the patient to, quite literally, be his own healer.

The key lies in stem cells, called "master cells," which have the ability to grow into any one of the body's 200 cell types or sensitized to attack diseased cells, including malignant tumors. They can replicate themselves many times over and theoretically, do so without limit, so long as the person is alive.

Therein lays the power of the treatment. "We're working with the patient's own living cells. That's what makes this different from other treatments using conventional, often toxic, drugs and devices," explained Dr. Samuel Bernal, consultant adviser on regenerative medicine for The Medical City.

In the case of Rafa, stem cells were taken from his own body, allowed to regenerate and were reintroduced into the baby's body as organ repair agents. The results were amazing. No more seizures and his wrinkled body became smooth and baby-like again.

Touted to be the next evolution of medical treatments, regenerative medicine has the potential to develop therapies for previously untreatable diseases and conditions. Examples of diseases regenerative medicine can cure include diabetes, heart disease, renal failure, osteoporosis, and spinal cord injuries. Virtually any disease that results from malfunctioning, damaged, or failing tissues may be potentially cured through regenerative medicine therapies.

What may seem like science fiction, regenerative medicine encompasses many novel approaches to treatment of disease and restoration of biological function through the following methods: using therapies that prompt the body to autonomously regenerate damaged tissues; using tissue engineered implants to prompt regeneration; or direct transplantation of healthy tissues into damaged environments.

Collectively, these treatments allow for two substantial advances over current medicine. The first advance is the potential to in vivo (in the living body) regenerate currently irreparably damaged tissues so that they return to full functionality. The second advance is to be able to produce tissues in vitro (in the laboratory) to be used for transplantation purposes when regeneration is not possible.

"Instead of relying on toxic chemicals to combat disease or donated organs to restore lost function, we're using the patients' cells to combat their cancers or regenerate their own organs," explained Dr. Bernal.

What truly differentiates regenerative medicine from many current therapies is that regenerative medicine has the potential to provide a cure to failing or impaired tissues. One such example is insulin therapy for Type 1 diabetes, and glucose therapy for Type 2 diabetes. While insulin and glucose can help patients manage diabetes, these therapies do not cure diabetes, nor do they prevent long-term complications, such as kidney failure.

In the United States, despite insulin, glucose and dialysis treatments, diabetes was the underlying cause of more than 68,000 deaths and the contributing cause of death in more than another 141,000 individuals.

Heart disease affects the valves of the heart causing them to fail. The two conventional ways to replace heart valves include implanting a mechanical device or a pig aortic valve. However, complications are very common. Blood clots can easily form around the mechanical devices, forcing patients on blood thinners.

Also, in an effort to stop the body from rejecting the pig aortic valve it is chemically treated. Inadvertently, this chemical changes the biological makeup of the cells rendering them helpless to regenerate when common minor tears form.

Already, regenerative medicine has successfully grown heart valves from human cells. With the use of biomaterials to create a mold, scientists engineer the cells to grow in the form of a heart valve.

Another benefit of regenerative medicine will be the advancement of our knowledge of the immune system as scientists work with immunosuppression and other issues associated with implantation of organs and tissues. Such knowledge will have numerous applications in combating the HIV virus and other immune deficient conditions.

Because of the economic potential of this industry (the worldwide market is conservatively estimated to be US$500 billion by 2010), initiatives to capture significant shares of the market are multiplying around the world and competition is mounting.

Already, the United States, the European Union (EU), Australia, Japan and China have started national initiatives and efforts to spur the advancement of their regenerative medicine programs. These commitments range from policy directives in the EU to extensive financial investment by the Japanese government focused on the city of Kobe and surrounding Kansai region targeted to develop a region of expertise in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

At the forefront of regenerative medicine in the Philippines is The Medical City in Pasig City.

Dr. Bernal said that other hospitals in the country are starting to gain vigor in stem-cell treatments. In 2007, patients treated reached over 100 in number.

"Ours is cheaper compared to other developed and developing nations," Dr. Bernal said. In the US, for instance, stem cell medicine costs $120,000 and above. In the Philippines, it is 40 percent lower than that of the United States.