Intra-articular injections of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) as a treatment for hemophilic arthropathy.

Intraarticular (IA) injections of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in idiopathic osteoarthritis (OA) have shown encouraging results in the literature. Hemophilic arthropathy (HA) represents an enormous societal burden. The similarity between OA and HA is very limited. HA resembles much more to the rheumatoid arthritis because a presence of thick synovial membrane and large lymphocytes infiltration. However, in its final stages, HA resembles OA and that is when IA injections of MSCs are commonly used. In this article, we review the concept of IA injections of MSCs as a treatment for HA, using the literature on OA as an example. Regarding HA, only two experimental studies have been reported to date. Such studies stated that IA injections of MSCs appear to be efficacious for decreasing pain in patients with OA and HA. The use of IA injections of MSCs is thus a promising therapeutic modality for treating HA.