The Healing Effect of Bone Marrow-Derived Stem Cells in Knee Osteoarthritis: A Case Report

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a prevalent chronic disease impacting on quality of life and has societal and economical burden increasing with age. Yet, no confirmed pharmacological, biological or surgical therapy could prevent the progressive destruction of OA joint. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) with immunosuppressive activities emerged a potential therapy. We describe a magnetic resonance images (MRI) approved 47 years old nomad female suffering from a severe right knee OA. After intra-articular injection of 36×106 passage 2 of bone marrow-derived stem cells (BMSCs), the patient’s functional status of the knee, the number of stairs she could climb, the pain on visual analog scale (VAS) and walking distance improved after two months post-transplantation. MRI revealed an extension of the repaired tissue over subchondral bone. So as MSC transplantation is a simple technique, resulted into pain relief, minimized donor-site morbidity, provided a better quality of life, significantly improved cartilage quality with no need to hospitalization or surgery, cell transplantation can be considered as a reliable alternative treatment for chronic knee OA. Therefore these findings can be added to the literature on using BMSCs for treatment of OA.