Therapeutics prior to mesenchymal stromal cell therapy improves outcome in equine orthopedic injuries.

The research article explores the usage and effectiveness of mesenchymal stromal (stem) cell therapy in treating orthopedic injuries in horses, and highlights that utilizing other therapeutic methods before this therapy can significantly improve outcomes.

Objective and Methods of the study

For the study, the researchers retrospectively looked at horse cases presenting with several types of orthopedic injuries (tendinous, ligamentous, and articular injuries) that had been treated with mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs). They included 65 horses that had been treated between 2016 and 2019 and for which they had outcome information for 26 horses. The objective was not to assess the effectiveness of MSC treatment itself, but rather how various treatment protocols affected the outcome.

• Factors like the horse’s signalment, clinical signs, diagnostic methods used were taken into consideration along with the treatment protocol features—therapies prior to and concurrent with MSC therapy, the origin of the cell, dose used, the site of application, and the number of treatments given.
• The study looked to compare the impact of different MSC treatment protocols—for instance, autologous vs allogeneic—on the treatment outcome.

Outcome

The use of MSC treatment resulted in an improvement ranging from 59.1% (in clinical lameness) to 76.9% (in imaging structure) in horses of different ages, breeds, sex, and with different types of lesions.

Primary Findings

Several important findings were revealed through this study.

• It was discovered that using other therapeutic methods before MSC application—like anti-inflammatories, shockwave, laser, icing, resting, bandaging and stack wrapping, intra-articular injections, and/or surgical debridement—had more effective results compared to using MSCs as the first method of therapy.
• In addition, no significant difference was found between autologous and allogeneic treatment outcomes, and both treatment types were deemed effective.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The study concluded by suggesting a need for a prospective study on MSC treatment with standardization and controls to evaluate the different aspects of the treatment protocols. The diverse case presentations and treatment protocols analyzed can be used to inform practitioners who are currently employing MSC therapy in their practice.