Conduct a search of “stem cell” and “joint” in MEDLINE-indexed publications, and you’ll find more than 250 studies across all species in the year 2013 alone, said David D. Frisbie, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVSMR, of Colorado State University. That’s about a hundred more studies than what researchers had published on the subject just five years prior, in 2008.
“We’re in the exponential growth phase and certainly there are a lot of things we don’t know,” he said, but as case numbers build, veterinarians can share what they’ve learned and advance the profession’s understanding of how to use these techniques. Frisbie, who is professor of Equine Surgery at the university's Equine Orthopaedic Research Center, uses mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) regularly in his practice. He presented general points to consider, how he selects cases, and a brief wrap-up of existing studies on MSCs for joint injury treatment in less than 20 minutes at the 2014 American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention, held Dec. 6-10 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Source and Processing Method
Frisbie dialed down the oft-debated topic of mesenchymal stem cell source to those he considers clinically relevant: bone marrow, which he referred to as the gold standard for joint-related treatments, and adipose tissue (fat). “We’re going to focus on these not because we don’t think there are others in the categories, but the relevance of being able to expand those in a clinically applicable way is difficult.”
As far as where the bone-marrow derived stem cells come from, Frisbie said that low-volume (5-mL) aspirate from the ilium (the wing of the pelvis) has been shown to form better cartilage matrix production than those from the sternum. Marrow draws from the latter also produce usable MSCs, he said, but he considers cells from the ilium more desirable.