Table 3.

Summary of intra-articular injection of expanded bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells in knee osteoarthritis treatment (2015-2018)

Cell type	Type of study	Experimental design	Cell dosage	Measurement	Results	Ref.
Autologous	Case series (n = 61); Final follow up: 6 mo	Phase I/II study	Not mentioned	VAS, WOMAC and X-ray	Significantly reductions in knee pain and increased quality of life at 6 mo follow-up	Garay-Mendoza et al[68], 2018
Autologous	Case series (n = 13); Final follow up: 24 mo	Phase I/II study	Intra-articular injection of 30.5 × 106 MSCs	MRI and KOOS	After intra-articular injection with BM-MSCs had significantly improved the KOOS and knee cartilage thickness	Al-Najar et al[69], 2017
Allogeneic	Case series (n = 60); Final follow up: 24 mo	Double-blind, multicentric, placebo-controlled, phase II study	Four dose levels were studied in this trial: 25 × 106, 50 × 106, 75 × 106, and 150 × 106	VAS, ICOAP and WOMAC	A 25 × 106 cell dose may be the most effective among the doses; WOMAC, ICOAP, and VAS scores decreased by the time of the final follow-up period	Gupta et al[70], 2016
Autologous	Case series (n = 30); Final follow up: 12 mo	Double-blind, multicentric, phase I/II study	Two dose levels were studied in this trial: 10 × 106 and 100 × 106	VAS, WOMAC, X-ray and MRI	A clinical and functional improvement of knee OA by the injection of 100 × 106 cell dose; Improvement of pain and knee function of OA patients at 12 mo follow-up	Lamo-Espinosa et al[71], 2016
Autologous	Case series (n = 4); Final follow up: 60 mo	Phase I study	Intra-articular injection of 8-9 ×  106 MSCs	Walking time, X-ray and VAS	Earlier transplantation may give better results in long-term follow-up	Soler et al[72], 2016
Allogeneic	Case series (n = 30); Final follow up: 12 mo	Multicentric, phase I/II study	Intra-articular injection of 40 × 106 MSCs	VAS, WOMAC, and LEQUESNE; MRI	Significantly improves cartilage quality and provides pain relief	Vega et al[73], 2015
Autologous	Case series (n = 30); Final follow up: 30 mo	Not mentioned	Intra-articular injection of 0.5 × 106 MSCs	Walking distance, VAS, WOMAC and MRI	Significantly improves cartilage quality and knee function, and reduces pain level	Emadedin et al[74], 2015
Autologous	Case series (n = 4); Final follow up: 60 mo	Phase I study,open label	Intra-articular injection of 8 × 106 MSCs	VAS, Knee motion, Range, X-ray	Earlier transplantation may give better results in long-term follow-up	Davatch et al[75], 2016

VAS: Visual Analogue Scale/Score; WOMAC: The Western Ontario and McMaster Universities; MRI: Magnetic resonance imaging; MSCs: Mesenchymal stem cells; KOOS: Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome; BM-MSCs: Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells; ICOAP: The Intermittent and Constant Osteoarthritis Pain Score; OA: Osteoarthritis.