Efficacy of adipose—derived stromal vascular fraction in treatment of osteoarthritis: an experimental study

Background Osteoarthritis OA is a common progressive disabling disease. Current research aims at finding therapies to prevent its progression. In this work, we assessed the therapeutic role of intra-articular injection of stromal vascular fraction SVF in collagenase induced knee OA in rats. Results Post right Knee OA induction in 42 Wistar rats, histopathological examination and quantification of articular cartilage degeneration using Mankin’s score revealed degenerative changes were significantly higher in untreated Group II compared to SVF treated Group III at 1 month (10.75 ± 0.50 and 2.50 ± 0.53, P = 0.001) and 2 months (8.50 ± 0.58, 0.50 ± 0.53, P = 0.001), respectively. Morphometric computerized image analysis revealed a significant difference between treated, untreated and healthy control group I regarding chondrocyte cellular count, articular cartilage thickness and optical density OD of the cartilage ( P