Alleviation of medial meniscal transection-induced osteoarthritis pain in rats by human adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells.

Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a degenerative joint disorder manifested with deformity, pain, and functional disability due to damage of the articular cartilage. Cell therapy with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) holds great promise to alleviate or even cure the degenerative diseases including KOA. However, the evidence of efficacy of human adipose tissue-derived MSCs (hAdMSCs) on KOA therapy remains limited. Here, we evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of hAdMSCs for KOA, using a medial meniscal transection (MMT) rat model. Our study demonstrated that intra-articular injection of 1.25×10⁶ hAdMSCs significantly attenuated MMT-induced joint pain in a KOA rats model. The results of this study provide strong evidence that hAdMSCs-based therapy can be regarded as a prominent treatment option for patients with KOA.