I am 45 years old man, and for the past two years, I have been experiencing occasional pain in both knees.
In the last two months, my right knee has been hurting more, so I went for an examination, and the orthopedist told me that I have moderate osteoarthritis. I searched the internet and saw that stem cells can be injected into the knee, which can repair cartilage.

Do you have any experience with patients who have received stem cells?

Osteoarthritis is a complex degenerative disease that affects not only the cartilage but also the bone beneath it. For easier understanding, we can compare cartilage to grass on a lawn, and bone to the soil underneath it. Just as the soil provides the grass with necessary moisture and nutrients, the bone through its blood vessels provides most of the necessary nutrients and oxygen to the cartilage. If it is not permeable enough, the cartilage will suffer. And that is precisely what happens in osteoarthritis. The first signs of this disease are visible on regular X-rays in the form of a bright line on the bone beneath the cartilage. This condition is called subchondral sclerosis and indicates a process of literal thickening and hardening of the bone on which the cartilage sits. Such hard bone increasingly fails to pass nutrients, resulting in faster “wear and tear” and slower recovery of the cartilage. The comparison with the lawn here is excellent. If we have concrete under the grass, you can pour all the new grass seeds and fertilizers you want, but it cannot be the lawn we knew.

In this sense, research on the effects of stem cells on osteoarthritis has mainly been conducted on a small number of subjects, and we do not have a definitive prescription for at what stage of osteoarthritis and whether this treatment method is effective at all. Even the authors of studies claiming significant benefits admit that they last for a maximum of 2 years per therapy. If you decide to undergo such treatment, do not forget that the only proven procedure for osteoarthritis, confirmed in tens of thousands of patients, which reduces pain, reduces doctor visits, and postpones surgeries, is regular and tailored physical activity, i.e., recreational sports.