![]() And these individuals will otherwise be healthy. So we are going to study 20 individuals with knee osteoarthritis. And that really paved the way for the human clinical trial. And we tested the cells in those knees as well, demonstrating that the cells did not have any adverse effect. ![]() And so these were rabbits that were at risk for developing early osteoarthritis. With then did a second study in which we surgically altered the knee of the rabbit to predispose it to osteoarthritis. First, we had to inject the knees of rabbits that were normal to demonstrate that there wasn't any adverse effect of the cells on the knee, and the rabbit that didn't have any preexisting problem. ![]() And we studied the safety of these particular cells that we'll be using in humans in rabbits. Our particular research has been using rabbits as a large animal model. In terms of animal studies for osteoarthritis, there have been many animal studies throughout the world in animals ranging from mice to horses and camels. Stem cells from fat also grow faster and are generally more resilient when you grow them in the laboratory, which makes them very attractive for growing in the laboratory and then subsequently injecting back into patients. So extracting stem cells from fat is very attractive in terms of numbers. And actually we have more stem cells in fat than we do in our bone marrow. But there are two areas where stem cells are particularly prevalent, in the bone marrow and in fat. First of all, adipose derived stem cells are very prevalent. Adipose derived stem cells have received increasing attention for several reasons. And now we're extending that to human clinical trials. We've also performed animal studies in rabbits demonstrating the safety of these cells in the treatment of osteoarthritis in rabbits. How this relates to previous research is that there has been a fair bit of basic science and translational research on the potential benefits of stem cells in the treatment of osteoarthritis. The primary goal of our current research is to study the safety of adipose derived mesenchymal stromal cells, or stem cells in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis. And stem cells are attractive in that regard. So we, like many other scientists and clinicians, are trying to look for interventions that will actually alter the course of arthritis or prevent it. Ultimately if the arthritis gets bad enough, the is a total knee replacement. At this point in time, most of our treatments are simply palliative, meaning they control symptoms, they don't really cure the arthritis. And the costs of treating and managing osteoarthritis are over $100 billion a year in this country. And in America, there are nearly 30 million people affected with osteoarthritis, the knee being the most common joint. Why study osteoarthritis? Osteoarthritis is the most common joint disease worldwide. I'm the primary investigator on this clinical trial with respect to the use of adipose derived stem cells for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis. JAY SMITH: I'm Jay Smith, Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Jay Smith, M.D., vice chair of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Mayo Clinic, describes a clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of adipose-derived mesenchymal stromal cell injections as a treatment for patients with osteoarthritic knees.
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