Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease that affects about 528 million people worldwide, of which about 365 million have osteoarthritis of the knee joint. Women are more likely to suffer from this disease. The only radical method of treating osteoarthritis of the knee joint is arthroplasty, but this is a surgical method of treatment, which is characterized by certain risks, in particular the development of infections. Therefore, mesenchymal stem cells are increasingly used in the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee joint. These cells are able to transform into cartilage, bone and adipose tissue cells, restoring them, and also have an anti-inflammatory effect.
The Institute of Cell Therapy, together with Kyiv City Clinical Hospital No. 6 and the State Institution “Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine”, has developed a method for treating osteoarthritis based on intra-articular administration of placental mesenchymal stem cells and hyaluronic acid.
From February 2020 to June 2022, the Institute of Cell Therapy, together with the above-mentioned medical centers of Ukraine, conducted a non-randomized open clinical trial (phase 1) to study the safety and effectiveness of intra-articular injections of placental stem cells. The study protocol was approved by the Coordination Center for Organ, Cell and Tissue Transplantation of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and registered in the international clinical trial database ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04453111).
The study included 26 patients with knee osteoarthritis (stage II-III). One group of patients received standard therapy plus hyaluronic acid (n=11), while the other received placental stem cells and hyaluronic acid (n=15). The patients were followed up for one year.
Intra-articular injections of placental mesenchymal stem cells and hyaluronic acid were shown to be well tolerated. The group of patients treated with placental mesenchymal stem cells showed significant improvements in WOMAC and VAS scores compared to the control group. At the same time, placental mesenchymal stem cells significantly decreased interleukin-2, a marker of inflammation, confirming the anti-inflammatory effect of placental mesenchymal stem cells.
Based on the results of the study, scientists concluded that three intra-articular injections of cryopreserved placental mesenchymal stem cells are safe and effective in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis. The results of the study were published in the international scientific journal BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders (April 2025).
Source: https://bmcmusculoskeletdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12891-025-08664-2#citeas
