How long do stem cells circulate in blood according to the speakers?

Joy Kong, MDRegenerative Medicine Physician, Educator, and Entrepreneur

What Happens to Stem Cells After They Do Their Job

28 Feb 2025 · 1 min

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0:56

Short Q&A-style video (speaker exchange) explaining what happens to stem cells after activation: they enter circulation for a limited time (not indefinitely), may be recruited to tissues for repair or re-captured by bone marrow, and thus participate in a cyclical release-and-recapture process. The speakers cite limited data (mouse studies) suggesting circulating residence time can be up to about six hours.

Questions this video answers

They circulate for up to about six hours (based on limited mouse data).

Chapters

Stem cells once in circulation there's a lifespan. They don't live forever. They do your battles, they're activated, they come out of hibernation. So there's finite lifespan. This is just a law of life. So if they do their work and then perish then what happens to your own stem cell supply?
Your own stem cells when you release them they don't perish. They will circulate for up to about six hours. The data on this is not extensive. We need to base that on data that has been done on mice and on do say up to six hours. And that residence time of your stem cells in your blood is really purely dependent on two things how fast they will be called to migrate either in a tissue for repair or in your bone marrow that constantly releases this SDF one. So the bone marrow is constantly going to capture back the stem cells that are in your blood and then they will be re released. So it's more of a cycle.