A Pilot Study to Assess the Safety and Efficacy of Umbilical Cord Blood-Derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells for the Treatment of Synovitis in Horses

A study assessed the safety and efficacy of a single administration of 10 million cryopreserved allogeneic mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) that were either activated (aMSC) or non-activated (naMSC) for the treatment of synovitis. The front or hind fetlock or a single joint of the carpus in 24 client-owned horses were split into two groups. Both MSC treatments resulted in positive clinical outcomes. When evaluating from Day 0 to Day 42, naMSC-treated horses improved by 0.79 lameness grades and aMSC-treated horses improved by 1.25 lameness grades. Both activated and non-activated allogeneic equine umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stromal cells resulted in significantly improved subjective lameness scores in horses with pain localized to the metacarpophalangeal, metatarsophalangeal, radial carpal, or middle carpal joints. The study supports the reported beneficial effects of activated MSCs, with an overall improvement in subjective lameness of more than one lameness grade (1.25-grade improvement versus 0.79-grade improvement of naMSC-treated horses). Both treatments are a viable option for off-the-shelf allogeneic MSC joint treatments. There was no significant difference between the two treatments for any outcome parameter. Owners were contacted at 12 and 18 weeks after treatment. All fifteen owners who returned questionnaires at 12 weeks were satisfied with their horses’ response to treatment. Eighteen of the twenty-three questionnaires that were returned at Week 18 indicated that the owners were satisfied with their horses’ response to treatment.

Read the complete report in Animals 2024 14(23) https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14233406