Application of mesenchymal stem cell therapy for the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee: A concise review

Table 5 Summary of intra-articular injection of expanded adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells in knee osteoarthritis treatment (2015-2018)

Cell type	Type of study	Experimental design	Cell dosage	Measurement	Results	Ref.
Autologous	Case series (n = 18); Final follow-up: 24 mo	Randomized and Double-blinded, A phase I/II study	Three dose groups: The low-dose (1 × 107), mid-dose (2 × 107) and high-dose group (5 × 107) cells	WOMAC, SF-36 and NRS-11	The dosage of 5 × 107 MSCs exhibited the highest improvement in pain, function and cartilage volume of the knee joint	Song et al[78], 2018
Autologous	Case series (n = 18); Final follow-up: 24 mo	A phase I/II study	Phase I: 10 × 106 (low-dose), 50 × 106 (mid-dose), 100 × 106 (high-dose); Phase II:100 × 106 (high-dose)	VAS, WOMAC and MRI	A 100 × 106 cell dose may be the most effective among the doses	Jo et al[79], 2017
Autologous	Case series (n = 18); Final follow-up: 20 mo	A phase I, bicentric, single-arm, open-label	Three dose levels were studied in this trial: 2 × 106 (low-dose), 10 × 106 (mid-dose) and 50 × 106 (high-dose) cells	WOMAC, VAS, SF-36, KOOS and OARSI	The group of patients injected with 2 × 106 cells exhibited the best response to MSC treatment, which can improve pain and induce structural benefit	Pers et al[80], 2016

WOMAC: The Western Ontario and McMaster Universities; SF-36: The MOS item short from health survey; NRS-11: The 11-point Numerical Rating Scale; MSCs: Mesenchymal stem cells; VAS: Visual Analogue Scale/Score; MRI: Magnetic resonance imaging; OARSI: Osteoarthritis Research Society International; KOOS: Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome.