Stem cells and PRPfor dogs.

Stem cell therapy and platelet-rich plasma, or PRP, are often mentioned together because both are marketed as regenerative medicine, but they are different materials with different sources and different roles. PRP is made from the dog's own blood: a sample is drawn, spun in a centrifuge to concentrate the platelets, and the resulting plasma – rich in growth factors that platelets release when activated – is injected into or near an injured tissue, most often a joint or tendon. It requires no cell culture and can typically be prepared and used within the same veterinary visit.

Stem cell therapy uses mesenchymal stem cells, most commonly derived from fat tissue or bone marrow, which can be expanded in a laboratory before being injected. These cells are of interest because, in laboratory and clinical studies, they have shown an ability to modulate inflammation and support tissue repair in joints and other connective tissue, as reported in early trials of the therapy in dogs with hip osteoarthritis.¹

PRP concentrates what the dog's blood already contains.

In veterinary practice, both therapies are used most often for orthopaedic conditions: osteoarthritis, tendon and ligament injuries, and post-surgical recovery, particularly in working and sporting dogs whose joints see heavy use. They are prescribed by a licensed veterinarian as part of a treatment plan, generally alongside physiotherapy, weight management, and conventional pain control rather than as a replacement for them. Some veterinarians also use PRP to support wound healing.

We do not diagnose conditions or decide when these therapies are appropriate; that judgment belongs to the treating veterinarian, who examines the dog, reviews imaging, and weighs the therapy against alternatives. Our role, where a banked line is involved, is limited to supplying cells of known origin and history from a dog's own stored line, for the veterinarian's use.

The honest summary of the research on regenerative therapies in dogs is that results are promising in specific conditions and specific studies, but inconsistent across the field as a whole. Trials differ in cell dose, cell source, and how outcomes are measured, which makes broad claims hard to support. Some dogs treated for osteoarthritis show measurable improvement in mobility scores; others show little change. We do not know in advance, for a given dog, which result to expect, and we say so plainly rather than implying a therapy is guaranteed to work.

Regulation of these therapies also differs meaningfully from country to country. In some jurisdictions, autologous stem cell preparations – made from the animal's own tissue and used in the same animal – are lightly regulated as a veterinary procedure. In others, cultured cell products are treated more like a pharmaceutical and require separate authorisation. A client's veterinarian will know what is permitted in the country where the treatment is being given, and we defer entirely to that.

A dog does not need a banked cell line to receive PRP or even most stem cell therapies; cells can be harvested from fat or bone marrow at the time of treatment. What a banked line offers is a known, tested, already-expanded source that a veterinarian can draw on later without a second collection procedure, and – for a dog whose fat or marrow yield is poor due to age or illness – a reserve of younger, more robust cells collected earlier in life.

This is one reason some clients bank a working dog's line well before any injury occurs: not because a therapy is needed yet, but because the option is cheaper and easier to keep open than to create from scratch under pressure, during an active injury, when time and the dog's condition both work against a clean collection. The banking itself costs $5,000 for UAE residents and $6,500 for GCC residents, with cryostorage at $500 a year covering both vaults; regenerative therapy itself is priced by consultation with the treating veterinarian, not by us.

For dogs whose owners are also weighing cloning or a future genetic panel, the same banked line supports all three uses independently. Storage does not need to be duplicated for each purpose, and full details of how a deposit is structured are on Preserve.

When a veterinarian requests cells from a banked line for a treatment already prescribed, a vial is thawed, the cells are expanded to the quantity and dose specified by the veterinarian, and the material is shipped in a validated cold chain package addressed to the clinic administering the therapy, with a chain-of-custody record tied to the registry number throughout. We do not ship loose vials to an owner directly; the material moves clinic to laboratory to clinic, so a licensed veterinarian handles it at every point where it is prepared or administered.

Expansion takes time, typically some days to a few weeks depending on the cell quantity requested and the dog's cell line's growth rate in culture, and we confirm an expected delivery window with the veterinarian before beginning so a treatment schedule can be planned around it rather than guessed at. This is not an emergency same-day service, and we say so plainly to owners weighing whether banking now versus later matters for an urgent case; for an acute injury, a veterinarian may recommend a fresh fat or marrow harvest instead precisely because of this lead time.

Once cells reach the clinic, what happens to them – dosing, injection site, number of sessions – is entirely the treating veterinarian's clinical decision. Our responsibility ends at delivering material that is viable, correctly identified against the registry, and accompanied by the documentation the veterinarian needs to proceed.

Before pursuing either therapy, most veterinarians will want a firm diagnosis, imaging where relevant, and a discussion of what outcome is realistic given the dog's age, breed, and the severity of the condition. Questions worth raising include how many treatments are typically needed, what improvement has been observed in similar cases, and what the therapy costs including any follow-up doses – since PRP and stem cell treatments are frequently given in a series rather than once.

We supply the cell material when a veterinarian requests it from a banked line and answer questions about how a line was grown and stored, but we are not positioned to advise on dosing, injection technique, or clinical suitability. That conversation belongs with the treating veterinarian, in the jurisdiction where the dog is being treated.