Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cells Technologies

A team of researchers from the Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine (CSCRM) at Tokyo Medical and Dental University (Japan) has recently confirmed the safety of their novel stem cell therapy to treat knee pain caused by osteoarthritis. The treatment, which involves transplanting the patient’s own mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into the cartilage of the affected knee, was found to not cause any serious side effects 5 years after transplantation, including tumors.

The study was recently published in the journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine.

Osteoarthritis, the most common type of arthritis, is caused when the cartilage between bones breaks down – leading to chronic pain. The cartilage located around the knee, known as the meniscus, is prone to age-related damage, making osteoarthritis of the knee a common and debilitating condition.

Knee replacement surgery is currently the most accepted form of treatment and can dramatically reduce pain in the majority of patients. However, rare side effects such as infection have highlighted the need for alternative therapies.

Recently, the team developed a cellular therapy that involves the transplantation of the patients own MSCs into the injured meniscus. Whilst this therapy is promising, some stem cell treatments have been known to cause tumors – an occurrence that can be detected by the presence of a type of chromosomal disorder called trisomy 7.

“Trisomy 7 occurs frequently in patients with severe knee disease such as osteoarthritis. The detection of trisomy 7 in epithelial cells has been associated with tumor formation. However, the safety of these cells after transplantation has not been investigated. That’s what we wanted to learn from this study,” explained corresponding author Ichiro Sekiya, director and professor at CSCRM at Tokyo Medical and Dental University.

The study showed that 3 years after transplantation, the tears in the patients’ knee meniscus were obscured. Trisomy 7 was observed in three of the ten patients who were involved in the study, however no serious adverse events including tumor formation were observed in any of them after 5 years.

“Keep in mind that these were autologous MSCs used in our study, which means that the transplanted MSCs came from the patients themselves. Any problems that might arise in the case of allogeneic cells, which are donated by someone other than the patient, still need to be determined,” Sekiya concluded.

“Nevertheless, we believe that these data suggest that MSCs with trisomy 7 are safe for transplantation into human knees and show much promise in treating osteoarthritis.”

Ref:https://www.regmednet.com/safety-of-osteoarthritis-cell-therapy-confirmed-in-new-study/