Australian vets have revealed that they have been successful in curing arthritic dogs with stem cell rejuvenation and researchers are hoping to develop the same technique in treating humans.

Melbourne vet Ray Ferguson has used stem cell treatment to treat arthritic dogs and the results have been promising.

"Particularly in the early trials I did five dogs, one of which was my own that had I would say incurable lameness, persistent lameness," he said.

"They all responded and those five dogs are all sound today. That's amazing."

The treatment involves dogs that are injected with stem cells that come from young donor dogs. The trials have involved dogs with skin disease and joint disease but arthritic dogs have responded the best of all to the stem cell injections.

The treatment can cost anywhere between $1,500 and $3,000. Older dogs are still eligible for the treatment but it won't turn back the ravages of time.

"I have to point out to them, look I'm not offering a fountain of youth. This isn't going to turn an old dog into young dog," he said.

"But it's just a wonderful, adjunctive therapy to have to everything else that we've got."

The stem cell renewal has generated interest in human doctors who want to develop the same technique in treating humans. Professor Richard Boyd of the Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories says the treatment could provide a template for human trials.

"The conditions which are generative which a dog gets in 10 years like arthritic hips and joints is very similar to what ageing humans get. So we can treat these dogs and improve their health using these stem cells. But it has a double-edged advantage of being able to say to our clinicians, look we've done now 8,000 animals," Boyd said.

"This is a basic very good basis to being able to treat humans."

Boyd hopes that stem cell therapy can provide the same effects on aged humans as it did with their canine counterparts.

"But I think that what we will see certainly soon is that this is sort of like the winter of stem cell research, it's now becoming the spring of stem cell therapy," he added.

"So hopefully we'll get a retired senior and a retired dog both walking briskly along the beach."