Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis With Allogeneic Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Vega A, Martín-Ferrero MA, Del Canto F, et al. · Transplantation

MSC group improved significantly on algofunctional indices vs HA at 1 year, and T2 MRI mapping showed decreased poor-cartilage area — a quantitative cartilage-quality signal.

Population

30 patients with chronic knee OA unresponsive to conventional treatment

Intervention

Single injection of 40 million allogeneic (donor) culture-expanded BM-MSCs

Comparator

Hyaluronic acid

Limitations

n=15 per arm; unblinded; T2 mapping changes are surrogate outcomes.