Chad Kurtenbach, MD, of Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Sanford Health is conducting a study of a stem cell treatment for patients with osteoarthritis in the knee.
Four things to know:
1. Roughly 120 patients will participate in the study to determine if stem cells are effective in treating arthritis, which would delay the need for invasive treatments such as knee replacements.
2. Stem cells from adipose, bone marrow and umbilical tissue will be compared in the study.
3. The aims to enroll participants between 40 and 70 years old. Treatment will include one injection — either a stem cell or steroid — and conversing with researchers about pain and function for about a year.
4. Neither participant or researchers will know if they received a stem cell or steroid injection, however participants will know where the stem cells used in their treatment originated.
"What we're trying to harness ultimately is our own regeneration potential. We all have healing potential circulating in our bodies. That's how we heal cuts, heal broken bones," said Dr. Kurtenbach. "We're trying to figure out can we harness some of that [regeneration] potential … for specific conditions."