Therapeutic effect of administration of mesenchymal stem cells stimulated with collagen V in articular cartilage of rabbits with osteoarthritis

Abstract

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a disease that affects the joints having as main characteristic the degeneration of articular cartilage. Currently, available treatments are ineffective in cartilage regeneration, often making it necessary surgery for placement of prostheses. In recent years many experimental and human studies have demonstrated the potential use of Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) in the treatment of OA. In this respect, MSCs derived from adipose tissue (ADSCs) have been a promising alternative due to their easy obtain, effective in bone and cartilage repair and stimulation of chondrogenesis by the Molecules of Extracelular Matrix (ECM). Among the ECM molecules, the Collagen V (Col V) due to its peculiar biochemical characteristics and importance in cell adhesion, migration, proliferation and differentiation, besides being present in large quantities in embryonic cartilage, could also stimulate chondrogenesis. Our proposal is to analyze whether the rabbits autologous ADSCs stimulated with Col V could have an effect on articular cartilage regeneration after induction of OA, restoring the characteristics of normal cartilage tissue and providing a direction for the development of future therapeutic protocols humans. Moreover, considering the easy obtaining adipose tissue and the difficulty of obtaining drugs that act on the osteoarthritic cartilage regeneration, verify if Col V stimulated human ADSCs can accelerate the chondrogenic process and therefore being useful in the treatment of OA. Furthermore, the results of this study will be very important to try clarifying the role of Col V in cultured ADSCs since this data can also be of great help in establishing new cellular models. (AU)