By increasing the amount of anti-inflammatory proteins in the joint, Regenokine is aimed at addressing the inflammatory disease process. The "active ingredient" in the injections is Interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1 Ra), a natural substance in our bodies. Introducing it back into the body that produced it is called an "autologous" treatment. The body should not reject it because it is recognized as its own.

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It was back in July of 2008 that I first stepped off of a Lufthansa airlines flight and entered customs in Dusseldorf, Germany, with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law, to begin a week's treatment with what was then called Orthokine. I was there to have the treatment in both my knees; my mother-in-law was to have it in the one knee that surgeons back home said was in need of replacement.

We were two in a long string of orthopedic pilgrims who had come to see "The Professor" in this university town near Cologne, close to where Germany borders Holland and Belgium. Quietly, below the radar, scores of American athletes, celebrities, and health professionals (as well as others from nations around the world) had come to Professor Peter Wehling's clinic then on Königsallee, a charming urban boulevard with an unending canopy of trees and a canal rushing down the center, to look into this treatment that was not available anywhere else in the world. I had referred two of my own patients for his evaluation and was now about to be a patient myself.

I had sent digital images of X-rays and MRIs of my mother-in-law's and my knees in advance of our evaluation in Germany. Dr. Wehling looked at the films and reports and wrote back saying my arthritic knees had about a 70 percent chance of a response that could last two to three years (which might then respond again to another course of treatment). He said my mother-in-law had stage 3 arthritis and that the treatment might help for a year. So we decided to try.

On our first day in Dusseldorf, we went to Dr. Wehling's offices. Our consultation then began with a meeting in Dr. Wehling's office. Wehling speaks fluent German, French, and English, and some Spanish and Italian. He explained the procedure, was modest but confident about the success of his treatment, and invited questions and discussion. We then had blood drawn, about 100 cc (a bit less than three ounces), and were given a precise time to return the next day and the three days thereafter for our treatments.

While we walked about Dusseldorf and explored the beer gardens, the lab technicians were at work with our blood samples. A naturally occurring anti-inflammatory protein in everyone's blood (but unique in its composition in each person) was isolated from our samples and processed by a technique that Wehling developed. Our respective proteins were replicated thousands of times overnight (work is underway, today, to achieve same-day replication, which will shorten the time needed for the treatment).