New Modalities in Knee Osteoarthritis Treatment Using Autologous Bone Marrow-Derived Mononuclear Cells

The clinical effects on knee osteoarthritis (OA) symptoms and tissue structure were evaluated after bone marrow-derived mononuclear cell intraarticular injection. A group of 32 patients with 34 knee joints in stage II-III osteoarthritis were treated by intraarticular injection of mononuclear cell suspension. Clinical results were obtained by KOOS (Knee Osteoarthritis Outcome Score) and KSS (Knee Society Score) scores during a 12 months follow-up period. Radiological evaluation was performed using magnetic resonance imaging. A comparison with a control group of 28 patients treated with routinely used three hyaluronic acid intra-articular injections was made. No adverse effects were observed after the bone marrow derived mononuclear cells (BM-MNC) injection. At the end point of the follow up all score results had improved, compared to those at to the starting point. 65% of patients maintained minimal perceptible clinical improvement of the score results. The Whole Organ Magnetic Resonance Imaging Score showed improvement from 44.31 to 42.93 points (p < 0.05) during a 6-7 month period. Comparing score results to the control group, a statistically significant (p < 0.05) improvement in the KOOS pain subscale score at the 6 and 12 months was observed in the mononuclear cell group. BM-MNC injection leads to a decrease of knee OA symptoms and slows changes in structure of the degenerative joint tissue.