title: Human autologous mesenchymal stem cells with extracorporeal shock wave therapy for nonunion of long bones.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Currently, the available treatments for long bone nonunion (LBN) are removing of focus of infection, bone marrow transplantation as well as Ilizarov methods etc. Due to a high percentage of failures, the treatments are complex and debated. To develop an effective method for the treatment of LBN, we explored the use of human autologous bone mesenchymal stems cells (hBMSCs) along with extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT).
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixty three patients of LBN were subjected to ESWT treatment and were divided into hBMSCs transplantation group (Group A, 32 cases) and simple ESWT treatment group (Group B, 31 cases).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The patients were evaluated for 12 months after treatment. In Group A, 14 patients were healed and 13 showed an improvement, with fracture healing rate 84.4%. In Group B, eight patients were healed and 13 showed an improvement, with fracture healing rate 67.7%. The healing rates of the two groups exhibited a significant difference (P< 0.05). There was no significant difference for the callus formation after 3 months treatment (P> 0.05). However, the callus formation in Group A was significantly higher than that in the Group B after treatment for 6, 9, and 12 months (P< 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Autologous bone mesenchymal stems cell transplantation with ESWT can effectively promote the healing of long bone nonunions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, The General Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300052, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhai
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Tianjin Hospital, Hexi District, Tianjin 300211, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xin-Long
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, The General Hospital of Chinese People's Armed Police Force, Haidian District, Beijing 100039, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Chuan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Tianjin Medical University, Heping District, Tianjin 300052, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Logistics College of Chinese People's Armed Police Force, Pingjin Hospital, Hedong District, Tianjin 300162, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Shui-Tao
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, The General Hospital of Chinese People's Armed Police Force, Haidian District, Beijing 100039, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Geng-Yan
authors.initials: GY
authors.lastname: Xing
keywords: Bone mesenchymal stems cells; Stem cell research; bone fracture; bone marrow cell transplantation; extracorporeal shock wave therapy; long bone; nonunion of fracture; transplantation