ABSTRACT Stem cell research has attracted much public and biomedical anticipation centred on the possibility of using stem cells to treat various diseases and conditions, but the number of evidence-based therapies is currently limited. Numerous commercial direct-to-consumer (DTC) businesses are nonetheless marketing experimental stem cell therapies online for myriad medical conditions and aesthetic ailments, which has attracted critique due to safety and efficacy concerns. Existing research has largely focused on the problem of unproven therapies and regulatory pathways for addressing it. The proliferation of these experimental products must also be examined, however, in the broader socio-technological context of consumer culture and changing practices of knowledge-making in the digital era. DTC stem cell therapies have emerged as a new biomedical ‘lifestyle’ product that blurs the boundaries between ‘science,’ ‘medicine,’ and ‘consumer culture.’ In using, conceptualising and marketing stem cells, commercial businesses build on and commercially co-opt alternative epistemic and ontological frames that challenge scientific medicine. They advance promissory narratives about their potential that tap on cultural aspirations around the future of medicine and health. This is key, not only for understanding how and why these therapies have proliferated but also in conceptualising what the ‘problem’ around them actually is.

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在英国营销实验性干细胞疗法：生物医学生活方式产品和数字时代再生医学的前景


摘要 干细胞研究引起了公众和生物医学的广泛期待，其重点是利用干细胞治疗各种疾病和病症的可能性，但目前基于证据的疗法的数量有限。尽管如此，许多商业直接面向消费者（DTC）企业仍在网上营销针对各种医疗状况和美容疾病的实验性干细胞疗法，但由于安全性和有效性问题，这引起了批评。现有的研究主要集中在未经证实的疗法和解决该问题的监管途径的问题上。然而，还必须在更广泛的消费文化社会技术背景和数字时代不断变化的知识创造实践中审视这些实验产品的扩散。 DTC 干细胞疗法已成为一种新的生物医学“生活方式”产品，模糊了“科学”、“医学”和“消费者文化”之间的界限。在使用、概念化和营销干细胞时，商业企业建立并在商业上采用挑战科学医学的替代认知和本体论框架。他们提出了关于其潜力的承诺性叙述，这些潜力利用了围绕医学和健康未来的文化愿望。这是关键，不仅对于理解这些疗法如何以及为何激增，而且对于理解它们周围的“问题”实际上是什么也很关键。