OnFriday, April 17, 2009 I injected 20 million adipose derived stromal cells with a 90% viability into the knee of a 64-year-old lady to test the safety and efficacy of what we had seen in dogs. In that knee she had moderate osteoarthritis which had given her continuous pain for the last five years. The pain ranged from a 2 1/2 to a 10 with 10 being pain equivalent to her child delivery pain. 12 days after her injection she was pain-free and has remained so. This lady also had a rotator cuff syndrome in her right shoulder. This shoulder has remained pain-free also. In both her wrists she had rheumatoid arthritis with pain and swelling. For this she had been taking methotrexate, prednisone, Celebrex, and up to 12 Panadol per day. After Day 12 she was only taking methotrexate. At eight weeks we stopped the methotrexate such that she was taking no medication whatsoever. Blood testing revealed that her cold reactive proteins (CRP) dropped from 23 mg/ml to 7.7 mg/ml at 10 weeks. However at 13 weeks we noted that her cold reactive protein had started to rise again although she remained asymptomatic. At 20 weeks she had a flareup of her rheumatoid arthritis in her left wrist for which she took prednisone for 10 days. She has had a second flareup with another 10 day course of Prednisone.
She remains pain-free and asymptomatic in her knee and shoulder.
We have now injected another eight people. They have all shown improvement in their knees. Those with back pain have shown improvement in pain and function in their backs. One patient with asthma has stopped his asthma medication.
Womac summary
All their WOMAC scores have improved.
Macquarie Stem Cells 