A Controlled Clinical Trial of Adipose Derived Stem Cell Transplantation for Osteoarthritis

Adipose-derived stem cell (ADSC) transplantation is a promising therapy for some chronic diseases. Some previous clinical trials showed that some diseases could improve and recover by ADSC transplantation. This study aimed to investigate ADSC transplantation effects on osteoarthritis compared to control. This clinical trial was performed at 03 hospitals with controlled groups. There were total 60 patients enrolling this study. All patients were divided into 3 groups: Group 1 (15 patients, traditional treatment therapy by endoscopic surgery—as control), Group 2 (15 patients; endoscopic surgery + ADSC injection), Group 3 (ADSC injection). In the Group 2, endoscopic surgeried patients were injected with a autologous mixture of stem cell-enriched fractions (stromal vascular fraction—SVF) and activated platelet rich plasma (aPRP) that prepared from fat tissue, and peripheral blood respectively, while in group 3, patients only were injected with SVF and aPRP without endoscopic surgery. The results showed that all patients in treated groups significantly reduced pain, reduced the Womac score, clearly increased the Lyshom scores and VAS scores compared to the control group after 18 months. These findings suggested injection of SVFs and aPRP mixture efficiently improved the osteoarthritis after six months. The registration number of this clinical trial was: NCT02142842.