title: Long-Term Follow-up of Intra-articular Injection of Autologous Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Patients with Knee, Ankle, or Hip Osteoarthritis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Osteoarthritis (OA) is a debilitating disease that typically affects a large number of the middle-aged and elderly population. Current treatment strategies have had limited success in these patients. This study aims to investigate the safety of treatment with autologous bone marrow (BM)-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) transplanted in patients with OA of the knee, ankle, or hip.
  
  
  METHODS
  We enrolled 18 patients with different joint involvements (knee, ankle, or hip OA) and one was lost to follow-up. BM samples were taken from the patients, after which BM-derived MSCs were isolated and cultured. Each patient received one MSC injection. Patients were followed with clinical examinations, MRI and laboratory tests at 2, 6, 12, and 30 months post-transplantation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We observed no severe adverse events such as pulmonary embolism, death, or systemic complications. A limited number of patients had very minor localized adverse effects such as rash and erythema. There were no changes in liver function, hematology, or biochemistry analyses before and after cell therapy. There was no evidence of tumor or neoplastic changes in the patients during the 30-month follow-up period. All patients exhibited therapeutic benefits such as increased walking distance, decreased visual analog scale (VAS), and total Western Ontario and McMaster Universities OA Index (WOMAC) scores which were confirmed by MRI.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study has shown that injection of MSCs in different OA affected joints is safe and therapeutically beneficial. However, further studies are needed with larger sample sizes and longer follow-up periods to confirm these findings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Regenerative Biomedicine at Cell Science Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran. nasser.aghdami@royaninstitute.org.
authors.forename: Mohsen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Emadedin
authors.affiliation: Department of Reproductive Imaging at Reproductive Biomedicine Research Center, Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Maede
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ghorbani Liastani
authors.affiliation: Department of Regenerative Biomedicine at Cell Science Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Roghayeh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fazeli
authors.affiliation: Department of Regenerative Biomedicine at Cell Science Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Fatemeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mohseni
authors.affiliation: Department of Regenerative Biomedicine at Cell Science Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Moghadasali
authors.affiliation: Department of Regenerative Biomedicine at Cell Science Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Soura
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mardpour
authors.affiliation: Department of Regenerative Biomedicine at Cell Science Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Seyyedeh Esmat
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Hosseini
authors.affiliation: Department of Regenerative Biomedicine at Cell Science Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Niknejadi
authors.affiliation: Department of Regenerative Biomedicine at Cell Science Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Fatemeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Moeininia
authors.affiliation: Department of Regenerative Biomedicine at Cell Science Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Aslan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aghahossein Fanni
authors.affiliation: Department of Regenerative Biomedicine at Cell Science Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Baghban Eslaminejhad
authors.affiliation: 1)Department of Regenerative Biomedicine at Cell Science Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran. 2)Department of Reproductive Imaging at Reproductive Biomedicine Research Center, Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Ahmad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vosough Dizaji
authors.affiliation: Department of Regenerative Biomedicine at Cell Science Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Narges
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Labibzadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Regenerative Biomedicine at Cell Science Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mirazimi Bafghi
authors.affiliation: Department of Regenerative Biomedicine at Cell Science Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Hossein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Baharvand
authors.affiliation: Department of Regenerative Biomedicine at Cell Science Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran. nasser.Aghdami@RoyanInstitute.org.
authors.forename: Nasser
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Aghdami
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000842:Ankle / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007270:Injections, Intra-Articular; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D045164:Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects; D008875:Middle Aged; D015207:Osteoarthritis, Hip / Q000628:therapy*; D020370:Osteoarthritis, Knee / Q000628:therapy*; D010147:Pain Measurement; D013995:Time; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult