06/05/2026
Hip osteoarthritis is supposed to get worse. More pain. Less mobility. Progressive degeneration. But that’s not what happened in this regenerative biologics study.
Researchers took patients with established hip osteoarthritis and administered approximately 20 million culture-expanded autologous bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells once weekly for three weeks (60 million total whole stem cells). These weren’t young donor cells. They were the patients’ own adult bone marrow-derived cells. Patients were then followed for an average of 29 months.
The results:
•Significant improvements in pain
•Improved stiffness
•Improved physical function
•Improved range of motion
•90% of patients showed no radiographic progression of their hip osteoarthritis 🤔
In other words, the vast majority of patients did NOT continue down the expected trajectory of worsening degeneration during more than two years of follow-up.
What’s particularly interesting here is that this was accomplished with a relatively modest regenerative intervention: approximately 20 million adult autologous cells per treatment, administered three times…the source was a relatively poor regenerative source, the dose was relatively low. What they did right was prolong the treatment administration over weeks.
The future of potent regenerative medicine is not about a single injection. It’s about a cumulative regenerative signal, delivered over time, where dose, source, concentration, and protocol all matter. That’s what we’re helping our providers do every day. That’s what’s continuing to get significant clinical results.
Study: Mardones R, Jofré CM, Tobar L, Minguell JJ. “Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy in the Treatment of Hip Osteoarthritis”. Journal of Hip Preservation Surgery. 2017. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28630737/
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