We are thrilled to share an excerpt form Dr. Q Schulte aufm Erley's article on Plant Stem Cells. Dr. Q is an entrepreneur, scientist and founder of one of our most loved partners: Shtrands. Shtrands is a beauty industry innovator. They provide a hair care concierge service that brings you curated products and expert advice to match your hair texture, scalp condition and styling needs.

The highly competitive cosmetics industry is always looking for the next best ingredient(s) that can fight the aging process and this led to a sizable increase in the number of anti-aging products on the market. With this is coming an increased number of active ingredients developed for this category; one of these ingredients is stem cell extract.This is an ingredient that must be assessed carefully, as marketing claims often push the limits of the available science.

The concept of stem cells originated at the end of the 19th century as a theoretical postulate to account for the ability of certain tissues (blood, skin, etc.) to renew themselves for the lifetime of organisms even though they are comprised of short-lived cells. Stem cells isolation and identification happened many years later though.

Stem cells have received a fair share of attention in the public debate mostly in connection with their potential for biomedical application and therapies. While the promise of organ regeneration have captured our imagination, it has gone almost unnoticed that plant stem cells represent the ultimate origin of much of the food we eat, the oxygen we breathe, as well the fuels we burn. Thus, plant stem cells may be ranked among the most important cells for human well-being.

A stem cell is a generic cell that can make exact copies of itself (daughters) indefinitely. These daughters can remain stem cells or further undergo differentiation (2). Such that a stem cell has the ability to make specialized cells for various tissues in the body, such as heart muscle, skin tissue, and liver tissue.

Because of their self-renewal functions, stem cells are the most important cells in the skin, as they are the source for continuous regeneration of the epidermis. Stem cell cosmetics are developed based on stem cell technology, which involves using extracts or culture media of stem cells. However, cosmetics containing human stem cells or their extracts have not been released into the market due to legal, ethical, and safety concerns. Meanwhile, plant stem cells, which circumvent these problems, are highly regarded in the cosmetics industry for improving culture technology.

The EUprohibits the use of cells, tissues, or products of human origin in cosmetics; stem cell therapy for anti-aging has not been approved or been deemed safe or effective in USA by the FDA. Furthermore, its use outside of a clinical research trial (which would be listed at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov) is prohibited. Whereas the Korea Food and Drug Association has allowed the use of sources originating from stem cell media in cosmetics since 2009 (3).

So, any cosmetics marketed as containing stem cells found on US market (should) contain stem cells extracted from plants.

A major difference between animal and plant stem cells is that plant stem cells provide cells for complete organs (branches, leaves, etc.), compared with the animal stem cells, which regenerate cells restricted to one tissue type.

Plants have nowhere to run when times get tough, so they must rely on an inner body plan to generate developmental responses to environmental changes.

Research by many labs in the last decades has uncovered a set of independent stem cell systems that fulfill the specialized needs of plant development and growth in four dimensions. In some long-lived plants, such as trees, plant stem cells remain active over hundreds or even thousands of years, revealing the exquisite precision in the underlying control of proliferation, self-renewal and differentiation.

There is some confusion around the term stem cell due to the marketing verbiage used by the cosmetic companies. In topical cosmetics the formulations dont contain stem cells straight out of the plants. They are actually a range ofplant stem cell extracts, which are manufactured using a cell culture technology.This technology consists of many and complicated methods that should ensure growth of plant cells, tissues or organs in the environment with a microbe-free nutrient. The plant cell technologyallows synthesis of the biologically active substances that exist in plants, but are not commonly available in natural environment or are difficult to obtain by chemical synthesis.

The extracts obtained through this technology from the plant stem cells are currently used for production of both common or professional care cosmetics (4).

The beneficial apple properties are known for centuries. Apples are cultivated today only for their taste, but earlier the main criterion of the type selection was the shelf life of the fruits.

One of such apple-tree types isUttwiler Spatlauberwhich is growing in Switzerland. This is a type cultivated solely due to a possible long-time storage of fruits, which remain fresh even for several months.Some trees come from the plant cutting sets planted during the 18th century!!!

The stem cell extracts are made in 2 main steps: first, the tissue material is obtained from apples (collected from a cut surfaces of the apples). Secondly, the material is going through a complicated biotechnological process to make the stem cell extracts that contains certain active ingredients. These are actually the ingredients used in formulations marketed as containing stem cells (5).

Swiss biotech company Mibelle Biochemistry created the product named PhytoCellTecTMMalus Domestica, that is a liposomal formulation (extract) derived from the stem cells of the Uttwiler Spatlauber apples. The company has published in vitro experiments done with hair follicles that showed the ability of theUttwiler Spatlauberstem cell extract to delaying of the tissue atrophy process (6); this ingredient delays hair aging.

At Teadora, we chose to includeMibelle'sPhytoCellTecTM Argan Plant Stem Cells in our ButterandBrazilian Glow Oiland here are the details from Mibelle that helped to convince us this ingredient was a must have companion to the huge list of active superfruits we crafted into our products, read on, it's pretty cool:

Deep-Seated Rejuvenation of the Skin:In order to maintain the skin in a healthy condition,cutaneous tissue is being continuously regenerated.This regenerative capacity relies on adult stem cells inthe skin. While considerable research has been done onepidermal stem cells, dermal stem cells were identifiedonly in 2009. The dermis is the middle layer of the skinand gives it tensile strength and elasticity, therefore it isalso the site where wrinkles originate.

PhytoCellTec Argan was developed to improvethe regenerative capacity of dermal stem cells therebyachieving deep-seated rejuvenation of the skin.

PhytoCellTec Argan is a powder based on stem cellsof the argan tree, one of the oldest tree species in theworld.In order to evaluate which active ingredient effectivelypromotes dermal stem cell activity, a stable humandermal papilla cell line was used as a new test system:stem cell activity is assessed based on the expression ofthe Sox2 gene, which is an established stem cell marker.Furthermore, the characteristic property of stem cells togrow in three-dimensional spherical colonies serves asa second observable indicator of stem cell viability inthis assay.

Clinical studies performed on healthy volunteers showedthat PhytoCellTec Argan:

effectively stimulates the regeneration of dermalconnective tissue, thereby increasing skin density

helps the skin to regain its firmness

significantly reduces wrinkle depth in crows feet area.

PhytoCellTec Argan is the very first active ingredientthat is capable of both protecting and vitalizing humandermal stem cells. This will not only help to acceleratethe skins natural repair process but also fights skin agingright at the root. Here are some of the amazing benefits:

Vitalizes and protects dermal stem cells Reduces wrinkles Tightens and tones skin tissues Increases skin firmness and density Deep-seated rejuvenation of the skinFirst cosmetic active with proven results forprotecting and vitalizing dermal stem cells

See more here:
Benefits of Plant Stem Cells for Skin & Hair Teadora