Published online Nov 26, 2014. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v6.i5.629
Revised: August 31, 2014
Accepted: September 16, 2014
Published online: November 26, 2014
Processing time: 62 Days and 18.5 Hours
Knee osteoarthritis is a chronic, indolent disease that will affect an ever increasing number of patients, especially the elderly and the obese. It is characterized by degeneration of the cartilage substance inside the knee which leads to pain, stiffness and tenderness. By some estimations in 2030, only in the United States, this medical condition will burden 67 million people. While conventional treatments like physiotherapy or drugs offer temporary relief of clinical symptoms, restoration of normal cartilage function has been difficult to achieve. Moreover, in severe cases of knee osteoarthritis total knee replacement may be required. Total knee replacements come together with high effort and costs and are not always successful. The aim of this review is to outline the latest advances in stem cell therapy for knee osteoarthritis as well as highlight some of the advantages of stem cell therapy over traditional approaches aimed at restoration of cartilage function in the knee. In addition to the latest advances in the field, challenges associated with stem cell therapy regarding knee cartilage regeneration and chondrogenesis in vitro and in vivo are also outlined and analyzed. Furthermore, based on their critical assessment of the present academic literature the authors of this review share their vision about the future of stem cell applications in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis.
Core tip: Knee osteoarthritis is a common medical condition in the elderly and the obese. Despite the variety of available conventional treatments for this disease, in recent years stem cell therapy has been applied in an ever increasing number of clinical cases. Therefore the aim of this review is to outline the latest advances in stem cell therapy as a non-pharmacologic treatment for knee osteoarthritis. It also emphasizes on some of the challenges associated with stem cell therapy regarding knee cartilage regeneration and chondrogenesis in vitro and in vivo.