Therapeutic Benefit for Late, but Not Early, Passage Mesenchymal Stem Cells on Pain Behaviour in an Animal Model of Osteoarthritis

Figure 2

Rats received an intra-articular injection of 1.5 × 10⁶ late passage mouse mesenchymal stem cells (mMSCs) from the bone marrow of Balb/c mice in 50 μL serum-free medium (SFM) or 50 μL SFM (vehicle) on day 14 post MNX surgery. (a) Intra-articular injection of MSCs significantly altered MNX-induced changes in the weight-bearing asymmetry. (b) Paw withdrawal thresholds in MNX rats were unaltered by the treatment. Data are expressed as a % of the mean MNX-SFM AUC for three timepoints (31, 35, and 38 days) postsurgery. Statistical analysis used a Mann–Whitney nonparametric unpaired t-test. Data are mean ± SEM, MNX-SFM (), MNX-MSC (). WB: weight-bearing asymmetry; PWT: paw withdrawal thresholds. MNX-MSC versus MNX-SFM.

(a)

(b)