Accentuating the sources of mesenchymal stem cells as cellular therapy for osteoarthritis knees-a panoramic review

The large economic burden on the global health care systems is due to the increasing number of symptomatic osteoarthritis (OA) knee patients whereby accounting for greater morbidity and impaired functional quality of life. The recent developments and impulses in molecular and regenerative medicine have paved the way for inducing the biological active cells such as stem cells, bioactive materials, and growth factors towards the healing and tissue regenerative process. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) act as a minimally invasive procedure that bridges the gap between pharmacological treatment and surgical treatment for OA. MSCs are the ideal cell-based therapy for treating disorders under a minimally invasive environment in conjunction with cartilage regeneration. Due to the worldwide recognized animal model for such cell-based therapies, global researchers have started using the various sources of MSCs towards cartilage regeneration. However, there is a lacuna in literature on the comparative efficacy and safety of various sources of MSCs in OA of the knee. Hence, the identification of a potential source for therapeutic use in this clinical scenario remains unclear. In this article, we compared the therapeutic effects of various sources of MSCs in terms of efficacy, safety, differentiation potential, durability, accessibility, allogenic preparation and culture expandability to decide the optimal source of MSCs for OA knee.