The Lana Clinic, Osaka: our visit, the treatment and what research says

Times and prices are as the clinic's website showed them on 15 November 2026.

Nuniek and I are in our forties. A friend who had been to the clinic described the treatment to us as feeling like "a brand new battery for your body". We were curious, we were going to be in Osaka anyway, and the clinic is in Umeda, where most trips to Osaka begin whether you plan it or not.

It also suited the shape of a trip. A day with one appointment, a short walk and an early dinner is a gentler start than a day of ten sights. That part I would recommend to anyone.

The building is an office tower with shops and restaurants on its lower floors. You take the lift to 18. The clinic is quiet and pale green, with its name in metal letters on the wall and a view over the roofs of Umeda from the treatment room.

We were seen as a couple, in a private room, and did not meet another guest the whole afternoon._[2] It felt less like a clinic and more like a private lounge. It began with a warm consultation about the treatment and what would happen. Then came three steps._[2]

• A skin treatment the clinic calls C-Opera. It uses electroporation, which helps a serum pass into the skin with small electric pulses and no needles. The clinic lists the serum's base as stem cell extract, growth factors, glutathione and hyaluronic acid._[1]
• A drip of stem cell culture supernatant into a vein in the arm. You sit back in a reclining chair by the window for this.
• The same kind of supernatant as a fine mist, breathed in through the nose from a small nebuliser, in the same chair.

It was restful from start to finish: a comfortable chair, a view and nothing to do. Afterwards the staff talked us through skincare and sent us off with a generous bag of gifts._[2]

The product used for our drip was Stemsup, made in Japan from the dental pulp of baby teeth given by healthy Japanese donors, with every lot safety tested._[2]

To grow stem cells in a laboratory you keep them in a liquid that feeds them. As they grow, the cells release what they are best known for into that liquid: growth factors, signalling proteins called cytokines, and tiny messenger particles called exosomes. Culture supernatant is that liquid, collected once the cells have been taken out._[3] You receive what the stem cells make, without the cells themselves.

Researchers have a name for this mixture, the secretome, and it is the subject of intense research. A 2021 scientific review describes how it works through "neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, antiapoptotic, and angiogenic processes": in plainer words, protecting nerve cells, calming inflammation, keeping cells alive and encouraging new blood vessels._[4]

The cells can come from different tissues. The clinic offers supernatant from umbilical cord, dental pulp and fat._[1] Ours came from the dental pulp of baby teeth, a source Japan has made its own: it is the second most used in the country, and researchers describe that as particular to Japan._[3]

Baby teeth turn out to be a remarkable source. In 2003 a team at the US National Institutes of Health found that a shed baby tooth contains stem cells that are "highly proliferative" and able to become several kinds of cell, including nerve cells. They called the teeth "an unexpected unique resource"._[5] These are young cells, from a tissue that would otherwise be thrown away.

This is one of the liveliest areas of regenerative research, and much of it is happening in Japan. We read up on it after we came home, and what we found made us glad we went.

Start with the laboratory. In animal studies, supernatant from baby-tooth stem cells has done some striking things. Given into a vein, it reduced the damage to the heart after an interrupted blood supply and cut inflammation along the way, and it did so more strongly than supernatant from bone marrow or fat cells. The researchers traced part of the effect to a growth factor that the baby-tooth supernatant holds in higher amounts._[6]

In another animal study it "greatly improved" nerve pain, by drawing the body's own anti-inflammatory cells to the injured nerve._[7] And given through the nose, the route we used for part of our session, a preparation from the same supernatant improved movement and helped clear a harmful protein in an animal model of Parkinson's disease._[8] The 2021 review counts neurodegenerative disease, nerve injury, cartilage and bone among the areas where this supernatant "may be effective"._[4]

Studies in people have begun, and the early ones are encouraging. In Japan, a doctor gave stem cell culture supernatant, by drip and by inhalation, to 19 patients living with persistent fatigue. Nearly half reported that their symptoms improved after a single dose, some showed signs of reduced inflammation, and no serious side effects were seen. The author describes the findings as offering "new hope and possibilities for treating fatigue"._[9] That is the same pair of routes we were given, and tiredness is exactly what our friend's battery line was about.

A second study will interest anyone our age. Sixteen healthy adults aged 46 to 72 followed a 17-week programme that combined two infusions of conditioned media with lifestyle changes and supplements. Their biological age, measured two different ways from blood tests, fell by 2.0 and 2.7 years._[10] It was a small pilot and the infusions were one part of a wider programme, but it is a first sign of where this may go.

More is on the way. Baby-tooth supernatant given by drip is now being studied in patients with ALS, a serious nerve disease._[11] In the wider field of stem cell research, a trial in 148 frail older adults found that those given a stem cell infusion walked about 63 metres further in six minutes, nine months later, than those given a dummy infusion._[12]

These are early days, and that is part of the appeal. The science is young, it is moving quickly, and Osaka is one of the places where you can try it for yourself.

This is the part people ask us about.

We spent the following two weeks in Osaka, Himeji, Sakai and Kyoto. We logged more than 20,000 steps a day and did not feel tired._[2] Our friend was right about the battery.

We were happy with how we felt, and we would do the day again. It is the reason this page exists.

These are the clinic's listed prices on 15 November 2026, tax included._[1]

The clinic also offers packages that include private use of the clinic and a car._[2] Ask when you book.

Culture supernatant is the headline, but The Lana Clinic is a full aesthetic dermatology clinic, and its menu is long._[1] If one of you wants the drip and the other would rather have something for the skin, you can both be looked after in the same visit.

• Drips: glutathione, which the clinic lists for brightness and clarity, and vitamin drips it lists for skin repair and recovery from tiredness. These start at ¥3,520 and are an easy first step if you are not ready for more.
• Skin boosters: fine injections of moisturising and collagen-supporting products across the face, from ¥22,800, with numbing included.
• Lifting and firming: ultrasound and radio-frequency treatments, with a full-face ultrasound session at ¥45,000.
• Tone and texture: laser toning from ¥6,900, light therapy for spots, peels from ¥8,800, and microneedling for pores and old acne marks.
• Hair removal by laser, and eyebrow and lip tattooing by the clinic's artists.

The clinic says it does not push treatments you do not need, and that it plans around your budget and what you want._[1]

If the clinic is your first stop, it makes sense to stay nearby, and Umeda is the most convenient place to stay in Osaka in any case.

• Trains: Osaka Station and the Umeda stations around it put you on direct lines to Kyoto, Kobe, Nara, Himeji and the airport. For day trips it beats Namba.
• Food: the department store basements, the lanes of Kitashinchi, the retro restaurant floor under the Umeda Sky Building, and the Ekimae buildings themselves, whose basements are full of small, cheap and very good places to eat.
• Views: the Umeda Sky Building's open-air deck, and the red Ferris wheel on top of the HEP Five shopping centre.
• Green space: Umekita Park, right beside the station, for a morning walk before the city wakes up.
• Shelter: when it rains or the summer heat is too much, the underground malls let you cross the whole district without going outside.

The Dotonbori lights and the castle are a short subway ride away when you want them.

From Kansai Airport, the Haruka express runs to Osaka Station in about an hour._[13] It arrives at underground platforms on the west side of the station, a longer walk from the main concourse than you would expect, so allow ten minutes more than the map suggests. The airport limousine bus to the Umeda hotels takes about the same time and saves you carrying bags through the station.

From Osaka Station, walk south. The Osaka Ekimae buildings are four towers numbered 1 to 4, a few minutes beyond the Hanshin department store, and No. 3 is the tallest. On a wet day you can do the whole walk underground: follow the signs toward Kitashinchi Station, which is two minutes from the building._[1]

Take the lift to the 18th floor. The lower floors are a maze of small restaurants and ticket shops, and worth a look afterwards.

A session takes two to three hours, so half a day is all you need. That makes it a natural anchor for an easy first day in Osaka. This is how we would plan it.

• Morning: sleep in. Have a late breakfast near your hotel. If you are staying in Umeda, walk through Umekita Park at Grand Green Osaka, the new park on the north side of the station.
• Lunch: the food floors of the Hanshin or Hankyu department stores. They are a short walk from the clinic, and you can eat lightly.
• Afternoon: the clinic.
• Early evening: the Umeda Sky Building for sunset, or Ohatsu Tenjin shrine and the lanes around it, five minutes from the clinic.
• Dinner: Kitashinchi, right next to the building, or the restaurant floors under the Sky Building.

If it rains, almost all of that can be done without going outside. Umeda's underground malls connect the stations, the department stores and the Ekimae buildings.

With Umeda as a base, the rest of Kansai is close, and this is where the walking added up.

• Osaka itself: the castle and its park, the neon of Dotonbori after dark, the old-fashioned streets of Shinsekai under Tsutenkaku tower, and Kuromon market for lunch on the move. Each is a short subway ride from Umeda.
• Himeji: Japan's finest surviving castle, white on its hill and a World Heritage site. The special rapid train from Osaka Station takes about an hour, and the walk from Himeji Station to the top of the keep and back is a morning's worth of steps on its own.
• Sakai: the quiet city just south of Osaka, known for its knives, its old tram line and its great keyhole-shaped burial mounds, among the largest tombs in the world. It is an easy half day.
• Kyoto: half an hour from Osaka Station by special rapid. Temples, gardens and lanes that reward walking all day.

October suited all of it. The weather was ideal, and there were free festivals and fireworks in the evenings._[2]

This is a wellness treatment, something you do for the pleasure of it and for how you hope to feel on your trip. It is not for treating an illness.

If you have cancer or have had it, are pregnant, or take regular medicines, talk to your own doctor first.

• Book ahead. The clinic is small and closed on Mondays, and the first days of a trip fill up quickly._[1]
• The booking page and the clinic's website are in Japanese. A translation app on your phone is enough to get through the form, and it helps on the day too.
• Bring cash or a credit card. Payment is in one go._[1]
• Keep the rest of the day free. You will want to wander Umeda afterwards, not rush for a train.

For everyone else, Umeda is a wonderful place to begin a visit to Osaka, and an afternoon at The Lana Clinic is a wonderful way to begin it.