Efficacy of autologous bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis and their effects on the expression of serum TNF-α and IL-6

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical efficacy of autologous bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell (BMSC) transplantation in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis (OA) and its effect on the expression of serum TNF-α and IL-6. METHODS: The clinical data of 86 patients with knee OA treated in the Shanghai East Hospital Tongji University from March 2015 to March 2017 were analyzed retrospectively. Observation group (treated with intraarticular injection of autologous BMSC); Control group (treated with arthroscopic debridement and injected with sodium hyaluronate). The patients were followed up for 1 year after treatment, the clinical efficacy was evaluated by the Lysholm Knee Scale (Lysholm), Visual analog scale (VAS), and the expression of serum TNF-α and IL-6 was detected by ELISA. RESULTS: The expression of TNF-α and IL-6 at 6 and 12 months after surgery was significantly lower than that before surgery (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The Lysholm score and total effective rate of knee OA patients underwent BMSC transplantation are better than that of joint debridement, while the VAS score was lower than that of joint debridement. Meanwhile, BMSC transplantation seems to reduce the postoperative inflammatory reaction.