Every question we actually get.

MSCs are adult stem cells found in bone marrow, umbilical cord tissue, and fat. Their job is repair coordination. When delivered into inflamed or degenerating tissue, they initiate a signaling cascade that operates at four levels at once: anti-inflammatory, anti-fibrotic, immunomodulatory, and pro-angiogenic.

The cells are the trigger. The signaling cascade they initiate continues well beyond the cells themselves, addressing the upstream biology behind chronic conditions, not just the symptoms.

Screened umbilical-cord tissue donated after full-term healthy births, rigorously screened for infectious disease and genetic markers. Celva's medical team then grows the cells in our own cGMP lab at Hospital Angeles, using a proprietary culture medium and expansion process, and preserves them by a proprietary method. Most clinics don't run a lab of their own; in Tijuana or Cancún, they buy frozen vials from a third-party supplier. The finished cells, the medium they are grown in, and the process behind both are developed in-house and used nowhere else, so the cell product you receive is unique to Celva.

Umbilical cord is our most common source, but it isn't the only one. We match the cell type to the case: umbilical-cord MSCs for systemic, neurologic, and autoimmune work, bone-marrow-derived allogeneic MSCs for orthopedic and structural cases, with chondrocytes added in select cartilage cases.

No embryonic cells are used. Cells are allogeneic, you don't need a harvest procedure yourself.

It depends on your protocol:

• Joint / orthopedic: Direct injection into the joint space under ultrasound or fluoroscopic guidance, paired with a same-session systemic IV. The two work synergistically: local repair signaling at the target site plus systemic immune-modulation across the whole patient.
• IV / systemic: Slow intravenous infusion over approximately 45 minutes, monitored.

Dosing is individualized; there isn't a fixed number we quote in advance. The attending physician sets your dose during case review, based on your diagnosis, body size, and goals, not at intake. It's weight-adjusted and tuned to severity, and systemic protocols can be split across more than one session.

No. PRP uses growth factors from your own blood, useful, but passive. Prolotherapy uses sugar solution to provoke local irritation. MSCs are live cells that actively coordinate repair over weeks to months. Many patients try PRP first, find partial relief, then come to us for a more durable response.

No. The cells are not genetically modified. They are expanded under cGMP conditions and returned in their native state, unaltered. Nothing about your own DNA changes.

MSC therapies are still working through U.S. clinical trials, a process that takes years even for treatments with strong evidence. Over 1,000 MSC trials are currently registered globally, but the FDA's cell-therapy pathway is slow by design.

Hospital Angeles is regulated by COFEPRIS, Mexico's federal regulatory body, where licensed physicians administer cell-based therapies in a fully supervised clinical setting. Patients access the treatment now, under physician oversight, rather than waiting another decade for U.S. approval.

COFEPRIS (Comisión Federal para la Protección contra Riesgos Sanitarios) is Mexico's federal health-regulatory authority, equivalent in function to the FDA. It licenses clinics and oversees laboratories operating in Mexico. Hospital Angeles is a licensed Mexican hospital regulated by COFEPRIS, where the physician team performs the regenerative medicine treatments Celva coordinates.

Most patients have few or no side effects. A small number notice something mild and short-lived in the first day or two: a low-grade fever or flu-like feeling, some soreness at a joint injection site, or brief fatigue or a headache. These resolve on their own.

Serious adverse events are rare in our clinical follow-up. The main risks, infection at the injection site and allergic reaction, are why we require hospital-grade monitoring and only treat in a full hospital setting.

This is the fear that stops many people from researching further, and it's worth taking seriously. MSCs are adult, lineage-restricted cells. They do not form teratomas the way embryonic stem cells can. Long-term follow-up across thousands of published MSC trials has not shown increased tumor rates versus the general population.

That said, we screen every donor for genetic markers and run characterization panels on each batch. We also decline treatment in patients with active, untreated cancer.

No. Hospital Angeles Tijuana is a 116-bed general hospital with surgical, cardiac, oncology, and ICU departments, part of Angeles Health, one of the largest private hospital networks in Mexico. Celva operates inside it. That means when something unexpected happens, you are already inside a hospital, not in a strip-mall clinic.

Every batch is tested and documented:

• Identity (flow cytometry; MSC surface markers CD73+, CD90+, CD105+)
• Viability (>95% live cells, re-confirmed post-thaw on the day of treatment)
• Sterility (14-day culture, no bacterial or fungal growth)
• Endotoxin (below USP <85> limits)
• Mycoplasma (PCR and culture)
• Cell count confirmation
• Morphology review
• Environmental monitoring logs from the cleanroom
• Chain-of-custody documentation
• Donor traceability records

All tissue donors complete a full medical and social history review and blood testing before any tissue is accepted. The infectious-disease panel includes:

• HIV-1/2
• HBV (hepatitis B)
• HCV (hepatitis C)
• HTLV-I/II
• Syphilis
• CMV
• EBV
• Toxoplasmosis
• Chlamydia
• Gonorrhea
• Zika (where applicable)
• West Nile virus (where applicable)
• SARS-CoV-2 (where applicable)

Tissue from any donor with a positive result is rejected. Records are maintained for traceability.

Honest answer: not everyone is. Our coordinator collects your medical history, current condition, imaging, and goals, and passes it to Celva's medical team for independent review. A significant share of inquiries are declined. If you're not a fit, we'll say so plainly, and, when possible, point you to what might actually help.

We decline candidates whose biology, comorbidities, or stage of disease make a meaningful response unlikely or unsafe. Absolute contraindications include:

• Active untreated cancer
• Pregnancy or active breastfeeding
• Active systemic infection
• Severe immunosuppression
• Uncontrolled autoimmune flare
• Recent major surgery without adequate healing
• Unstable cardiovascular disease
• Severe active coagulopathy
• Complex uncontrolled anticoagulation
• Acute hospitalization or medically unstable condition

We also decline patients with a structural problem where surgery is clearly the right answer (e.g., an unstable ligament or a complete tendon rupture), and patients whose expectations we can't meet honestly. Advanced bone-on-bone arthritis is not an automatic decline: we can often still treat it to delay surgery and improve pain and function, and we're honest about the lower ceiling.

We treat adults (18+). Younger patients are rare and require medical-team approval on a case-by-case basis. Our typical patient is 40–75. We've treated patients in their 80s who were otherwise healthy; we've declined 55-year-olds who had complicating conditions. Age alone is not a disqualifier; biological health is what the physician team evaluates.

Often, yes, when there's still viable cartilage to work with. Grade 2–3 osteoarthritis tends to respond well. Grade 4 (bone-on-bone) is harder; we'll sometimes treat it for pain and function, but we're honest about the ceiling. If your surgeon has recommended replacement and you're considering a delay, bring your MRI and we'll tell you straight.

Often the opposite. MSCs have strong immunomodulatory effects, and autoimmune conditions (MS, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus) are among the indications with the most active clinical research. That said, these cases require a thorough evaluation and often a neurologist or rheumatologist partnering with the physician team. See if you're a candidate. Celva’s medical team will assess carefully.

Helpful, but not a requirement. If you have recent MRI, X-ray, CT, or ultrasound, we'll review it. If you don't, we can perform the imaging you need at Hospital Angeles before treatment to establish a baseline. The physician team tells you what your case actually needs during review.

Celva operates inside Hospital Angeles, a full hospital, not a standalone clinic. Private concierge transport from San Diego in our Escalade, you stay in the car both directions, and a team member is with you throughout. The return trip uses the medical lane at the border (typical wait 15 to 30 minutes). We don't send patients alone. Zona Urbana Río, where the hospital sits, is the medical-district area of Tijuana, well-trafficked during business hours.

The treatment is one day, in and out. Most patients are picked up in San Diego in the morning, treated at Hospital Angeles, and back across the border the same afternoon, once the physician team authorizes discharge.

Most patients fly into San Diego, where we take over. We walk you through the timing for your case during intake, never on arrival.

We strongly recommend a valid U.S. passport or passport card; it makes every crossing simpler, and a passport card is enough for the land crossing in our Escalade (including the northbound medical lane). If you don't have either, tell us early. In special circumstances, with team approval, we can sometimes help arrange your crossing.

The medical lane is a faster northbound lane at San Ysidro, administered on the Mexican side of the border for medical-tourism patients. Our concierge Escalade is set up to use it, so the crossing is handled for you start to finish: no passes to arrange, no letter of medical necessity, nothing to do on your end. The typical wait is 15 to 30 minutes, versus the general public lanes, which typically run 3 to 4 hours. You stay in the Escalade, and your documents are reviewed at the U.S. border booth as usual. Southbound into Mexico has no medical lane and doesn't need one; it's typically non-stop most days.

Most patients prefer a San Diego hotel; we work with several downtown properties. If you'd rather stay closer to the hospital, the Marriott in Tijuana is an easy option. We book whichever you prefer.

Please do. Most patients travel with a spouse, adult child, or close friend. Transport and hospital access easily accommodates one or two companions. Larger groups can be arranged with notice.

Easy. Fly into San Diego International (SAN); we pick you up. Patients regularly come from Texas, Florida, New York, and internationally. For international patients we can help with travel-concierge referrals; we don't arrange flights directly.

Some patients feel a difference in the first one to two weeks. For many, the shift builds over the following weeks, often landing in the 4 to 12 week window. Joint responses tend to keep accumulating over 3 to 6 months, and IV and neurologic responses are slower to peak but often more enduring. It's a gradual, individual curve, not a single switch.

Duration varies by indication, individual response, and tissue environment. The therapeutic effect (reduced inflammation, modulated immune activity, activated repair processes) persists long after the cells have done their work. Many orthopedic patients maintain function for years; systemic IV protocols are commonly maintained with periodic follow-up doses. The physician team will discuss what's realistic for your specific case during review. We track outcomes in our clinical follow-up and will share what's relevant to your indication during intake.

It depends on the indication and how we define success. For well-selected orthopedic patients, we see a meaningful clinical response in a share of patients at 6 months, measured on standardized scales such as VAS and KOOS / HOOS / SPADI. Response rates vary by indication. Specific response percentages will be published once our clinical follow-up dataset is fully audited.

Many orthopedic patients respond well to a single dose. Systemic conditions (IV longevity, autoimmune) are more commonly treated with periodic maintenance sessions, with the cadence set by indication and your response at each follow-up. We decide with you based on response at each follow-up, we don't upsell sessions.

Be skeptical of anyone who promises this. On follow-up MRI we sometimes see imaging stabilization (no further loss) in selected patients; specific improvements in cartilage thickness or signal are not guaranteed and are not the standard we measure against. We do not claim to rebuild a bone-on-bone joint. The more honest outcome measure is symptom and function improvement.

Structured follow-up is performed by our patient care team at week 1, then months 1, 3, 5, 9, and 12, with direct physician review whenever clinical concerns, protocol adjustments, or additional medical evaluation are needed. Your data is recorded in our clinical follow-up records to inform what we do.

Rarely. A small percentage of patients report transient flare-ups in the first 1–2 weeks that resolve. Serious adverse outcomes in our clinical follow-up are extremely uncommon. The more common disappointment is no meaningful change, which is why candidacy review matters.

Most patients return to desk work the next day. Physical jobs, construction, nursing, anything with heavy lifting, we recommend 3–7 days off after joint injection. IV-only protocols have essentially no downtime.

Mostly yes. We ask you to pause NSAIDs (ibuprofen, naproxen, etc.) and systemic steroids for 2 weeks before and 4 weeks after treatment, they blunt the inflammatory signaling the cells rely on. Acetaminophen is fine. Your other prescriptions are reviewed individually by the physician team during case review.

It depends on what you had. After an IV, you can return to normal movement right away. After a joint injection, the treated joint needs protected, progressive loading: easy movement early, structured training around week 2, and impact (running, plyometrics) from about week 4 to 6, guided by symptoms. For joint injections we send a progressive loading protocol with your aftercare packet.

Moderate. We recommend avoiding alcohol for 48 hours before and 72 hours after. Chronic heavy use will dampen your response, honestly, so will smoking. If you're investing in this, give the cells a clean environment to work in.

Yes. Most patients are cleared to fly the same day. Discharge and travel timing are set by the attending physician, not a fixed schedule, and the physician team will tell you what applies to your case.

Your case physician, directly. You'll have their number in your aftercare packet, plus a 24/7 clinical line. We answer. If it's an emergency (severe chest pain, shortness of breath, fever over 102°F, signs of infection at the injection site), call local emergency services first, then call us.