Storing some of your body’s stem cells for future use at the onset of a debilitating, if not deadly, heart disorder or other disease is a thing of the future — right?

Not for the LifeSource Cryobank in Covington.

Tucked away in the physicians building on Lakeview Regional Medical Center’s campus, Dr. Gabriel Lasala, who specializes in cardiology, founded the Cryobank last year as a sort of biological life insurance for patients with, or at risk for ,certain diseases.

LifeSource medical director Dr. Gabriel Lasala shows off one of the cryopreservation chambers where the stem cells are kept at minus 310 degrees F. (Staff Photo by Chad Ruiz)

Regenerating damaged tissue and organs is made possible through the work of stem cells.

The cells are like wild cards with the ability to develop into other types of cells for the treatment of degenerative diseases by repairing damaged cells.

Umbilical cord blood and bone marrow are the main reservoirs for gathering the distinct stem cells used in reparative and regenerative therapies.

The idea behind LifeSource is to extract stem cells from your own bone marrow, purify and multiply them in their state of the art laboratory and then re-inject them into your body to repair cells that have been damaged due to disease.

Working alongside one of the world’s leading stem cell researcher, Dr. Jose Minguell, LifeSource is the only company in the country with the approval and ability to extract a certain type of stem cell from the bone marrow that can be used to regenerate bone, muscle, cartilage, blood vessels and other tissues and organs, unlike the more common and mostly used hematopoietic stem cells extracted from bone marrow that can only regenerate blood cells.

The procedure is costly, Lasala admitted, but more than worth it if you suffer from or are at risk to develop a heart condition, cancer, bone condition or a variety of other disorders.

After the stem cells are harvested from the patient’s bone marrow, they are cleansed then placed in special incubators, where they are multiplied and monitored constantly in a pressurized environment.

Once ready, the cells are frozen using a sophisticated cryopreservation method which freezes the cells to a blistering minus 310 degrees F, using liquid nitrogen, where they can stay preserved indefinitely.

The entire process takes several weeks, Lasala said.

Since first opening last year, Lasala said they’ve extracted and stored stem cells for about 150 patients.

The majority of the patients are from Louisiana, he said, but they’ve also treated people from all over the country.

A 15-year Louisiana resident, Lasala’s interest in stem cells peaked when he learned of a successful case study performed by a group of German doctors several years ago to treat heart conditions.

After visiting several countries, Lasala found Minguell in Chili and convinced him to come live in the United States and work for LifeSource.

“We do not have many experts in stem cell research here, so I had to go out and bring an expert from the outside,” Lasala said.

For more information on LifeSource, visit www.lifesourcecryobank.com.