Adipose - Derived Stromal Vascular Fraction in Treatment of Osteoarthritis: Experimental Study

Abstract

Osteoarthritis is the most prevalent form of arthritis in adults associated with high socioeconomic burden and is a major cause of disability in elderly. Regenerative medicine based on stem cells is a considered a promising treatment modality for many orthopedic problems. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from different sources have been extensively investigated for their capability to regenerate damaged or injured articular cartilage and to delay the progression of knee OA. Stromal vascular fraction (SVF) contains cells population with multi-lineage potential and can be easily obtained in large amounts from lipoaspirates. It shares the same properties as adipose derived stem cells ADSCs but doesn’t need to be cultured. This current study was designed to study the therapeutic role of adipose derived SVF in rat model of collagenase induced osteoarthritis. Osteorthritis was induced in right knee joints of 42 female Wistar rats. The left knee was considered as healthy control. In our experiment, SVF was obtained by enzymatic degradation of fat obtained from the 6 male rats and yielded SVF 106 cells /ml. Flow cytometry analysis showed that SVF cells were positive for mesenchymal stem cells markers (CD44).