Department of Bone and Joint, The First Hospital of Jilin University, 72 Xinmin Street, Changchun, 130021, Jilin, China.
Hum Cell. 2020 Jul;33(3):470-475. doi: 10.1007/s13577-020-00377-z. Epub 2020 May 23.
Osteoarthritis is a chronic degenerative joint disease with an incidence of 81% among people aged over 65 years in China. Osteoarthritis significantly decreases the quality of life of patients, causing physical and psychological damage and posing a serious economic burden. Clinical treatments for osteoarthritis include drug and surgical treatments. Drug treatment can successfully alleviate pain but not satisfactorily reverse joint damage, while surgical intervention is typically used to treat end-stage disease. Stem cells are multi-potential progenitor cells with self-renewal and multi-lineage differentiation abilities, and can differentiate into many kinds of cells, including chondrocytes. Umbilical cord stem cells, also known as Wharton's jelly mesenchymal stem cells (WJ-MSCs), have become the first choice for cartilage regeneration engineering owing to their availability and convenience of collection. This article reviews the biological characterization of WJ-MSCs in recent years, their advantages compared with other stem cells, and their application in the treatment of osteoarthritis in animal experiments and clinical trials.
骨关节炎是一种慢性退行性关节疾病，在中国，65 岁以上人群的发病率为 81%。骨关节炎显著降低了患者的生活质量，造成身体和心理损伤，并带来严重的经济负担。骨关节炎的临床治疗包括药物治疗和手术治疗。药物治疗可以成功缓解疼痛，但不能令人满意地逆转关节损伤，而手术干预通常用于治疗终末期疾病。干细胞是具有自我更新和多向分化能力的多潜能祖细胞，可以分化为多种细胞，包括软骨细胞。脐带干细胞，也称为 Wharton 胶间充质干细胞（WJ-MSCs），由于其易于获取和采集，已成为软骨再生工程的首选。本文综述了近年来 WJ-MSCs 的生物学特性、与其他干细胞相比的优势，以及其在动物实验和临床试验中治疗骨关节炎的应用。
