title: Autologous bone marrow stem cell intralesional transplantation repairing bisphosphonate related osteonecrosis of the jaw.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Bisphosphonate - related osteonecrosis of the JAW (BRONJ) is a well known side effect of bisphosphonate therapies in oncologic and non oncologic patients. Since to date no definitive consensus has been reached on the treatment of BRONJ, novel strategies for the prevention, risk reduction and treatment need to be developed. We report a 75 year old woman with stage 3 BRONJ secondary to alendronate and pamidronate treatment of osteoporosis. The patient was unresponsive to recommended treatment of the disease, and her BRONJ was worsening. Since bone marrow stem cells are know as being multipotent and exhibit the potential for differentiation into different cells/tissue lineages, including cartilage, bone and other tissue, we performed autologous bone marrow stem cell transplantation into the BRONJ lesion of the patient.
  
  
  METHODS
  Under local anesthesia a volume of 75 ml of bone marrow were harvested from the posterior superior iliac crest by aspiration into heparinized siringes. The cell suspension was concentrated, using Ficoll - Hypaque® centrifugation procedures, in a final volume of 6 ml. Before the injection of stem cells into the osteonecrosis, the patient underwent surgical toilet, local anesthesia was done and spongostan was applied as a carrier of stem cells suspension in the bone cavity, then 4 ml of stem cells suspension and 1 ml of patient's activated platelet-rich plasma were injected in the lesion of BRONJ.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A week later the residual spongostan was removed and two weeks later resolution of symptoms was obtained. Then the lesion improved with progressive superficialization of the mucosal layer and CT scan, performed 15 months later, shows improvement also of bone via concentric ossification: so complete healing of BRONJ (stage 0) was obtained in our patient, and 30 months later the patient is well and without signs of BRONJ.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  To our knowledge this is the first case of BRONJ successfully treated with autologous stem cells transplantation with a complete response.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology and Hematology, Hospital of Piacenza, Via Taverna, 49, 29100, Italy.
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cella
authors.forename: Aldo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Oppici
authors.forename: Mariacristina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Arbasi
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moretto
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Piepoli
authors.forename: Daniele
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vallisa
authors.forename: Adriano
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zangrandi
authors.forename: Camilla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Di Nunzio
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cavanna
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D004164:Diphosphonates / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015552:Injections, Intralesional; D007571:Jaw Diseases / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000601:surgery*; D010020:Osteonecrosis / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000601:surgery*; D015663:Osteoporosis, Postmenopausal / Q000188:drug therapy; D000077268:Pamidronate; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous
chemical_list: D004164:Diphosphonates; D000077268:Pamidronate