Researchers hoping to find ways to regenerate cartilage worn away in aging knees and hips, have for more than two decades looked to stem cells to be the agent to regrow cartilage. Regrettably, the results, to date, have been inconsistent.
Stem Cells Regrow Cartilage in Study Pigs
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Now comes a report from Samsung Medical Center, Sung Kyun Kwan University in Seoul, Korea, of six piglet knees, intentionally damaged, that have regrown their cartilage after receiving injections of human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells in a hyaluronic acid mixture.
This particular stem cells mixture offers a promising approach. They are non-inflammatory, immune privileged and comparatively easy to obtain and to store.
In earlier research the Seoul investigators had successfully regenerated cartilage in rat and rabbit models. Now they wanted to test their theory on larger animals and chose pigs, which are physiologically similar to humans.
The lead author Chul Won Ha, M.D., Ph.D., said, “After 12 weeks, there was no evidence of abnormal findings suggesting rejection or infection in any of the six treated pigs. The surface of the defect site in the transplanted knees was relatively smooth and had similar coloration and microscopic findings as the surrounding normal cartilage, compared to the knees of a control group of animals that received no cells.”
“This led us to conclude that the transplantation of human cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells in a 4% hyaluronic acid hydrogel shows superior cartilage regeneration, regardless of the species. These consistent results in animals may be a stepping stone to human clinical trials in the future, ”
That future cannot happen soon enough. Nearly a million people undergo hip ad knee replacements every year in the United States (645, 000 hips and 300, 000 knees) according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
The article is titled “Cartilage Repair Using Composites of Human Umbilical Cord Blood-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Hyaluronic Acid Hydrogel in a Minipig Model, ” Yong-Beom Park, Chul-Won Ha. The article was published in Stem Cells Translational Medicine, a monthly peer-reviewed publication dedicated to significantly advancing the clinical utilization of stem cell molecular and cellular biology.
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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