Authors:
Deng, Ming-Wei; Wei, Shih-Jung; Yew, Tu-Lai; Lee, Po-Hui; Yang, Tzu-Yu; Chu, Hen-Yi; Hung, Shih-Chieh
Summary:
G-CSF-mobilized peripheral blood stem cells (gm-PBSCs) offer a convenient cell source for treatment of hematopoietic and vascular disorders. Whether gm-PBSCs provide beneficial effects on skeleton diseases, such as osteoarthritis (OA), remain unknown. This study was undertaken to address the hypothesis that gm-PBSCs promote articular regeneration in OA. Here, we studied the effect of singledose intra-articular injection of gm-PBSCs from male donors delivered in hyaluronic acid (HA) on papain-induced OA in the knee joints of female Sprague Dawley (SD) rats. Contralateral OA knee joints received single-dose HA alone serve as vehicle controls. We evaluated the histologic changes in glycosaminoglycan, type II collagen, type X collagen, modified Mankin score and cell apoptosis rate in the articular cartilage of rat knees. We demonstrated that gm-PBSCs were mobilized to the peripheral blood via G-CSF infusion for 5 days in SDrats with increasing CD34+ percentage up to 55 folds. We showed that gm-PBSCs inhibit progression of papain-induced OA via reducing articular surface irregularity, fibrillation and erosion, preventing cellular necrosis and loss of chondrogenic proteins, such as glycosaminoglycan and type II collagen, at both 3 and 6 weeks after treatment. Moreover, gm-PBSCs reduced modified Mankin scores and cellular apoptosis rate compared with HA alone. Our findings demonstrate that HA plus gm-PBSCs, rather than HA alone, inhibits progression of OA in rats in vivo. Thus, intra-articular injection of gm-PBSCs is a convenient protocol for treating OA with consistent beneficial effects.
Source:
Cell Transplantation; (03/24/14)