Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells have been used to treat bone and joint disease and spinal cord injury as well as central nervous system lesions clinically.
OBJECTIVE: To analyze the clinical application of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells in treatment of bone and joint disease and spinal cord injury.
METHODS: A retrieval was performed for the literature of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells used for treatment of bone and joint disease and spinal cord injury, using key words “bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells, osteocyte or bone cell, chondrocyte, cartilage defect, articular cartilage, tissue engineering, femoral head necrosis, spinal cord injury” between 2002-01 and 2011-12 in Science Citation Index (SCI) database.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: In recent years, bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells have been used for clinical treatment of orthopedic diseases. Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells exist in the bone marrow and maintain the differentiation potential of stem cells. Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells can be differentiated into osteocytes and chondrocytes under certain in vivo conditions and have been applied for treatment of bone defects, femoral head necrosis and other orthopedic diseases. Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells can be used for would healing, cell replacement therapy, hematopoiesis and gene therapy in addition to tissue engineering due to their characteristics.