“Revitalizing Your Knees: Unleashing the Power of PRP and Stem Cell Therapies for Arthritis Relief!”

Christel Payseng
6 min readSep 29, 2023

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So you have really bad pain in your knees and you tried everything to treat them but cannot find relief. But you heard a lot of stories about PRP injection vs. Stem Cell therapy for Knee Arthritis in the past and decided to take a chance. To help you with your decision, we are going to give you an idea about how it works.

PRP and Stem Cell therapy for Knee Arthritis treatments both fall under regenerative medicine, or ortho biologics.
These are very new techniques. It uses your own body cells to heal your body and both contain a huge amount of growth factors that are responsible for tissue healing, tissue remodeling, tissue proliferation, and in controlling pain and inflammation more specific to osteoarthritis.

Both are incredibly important in altering the biochemistry of a knee suffering from arthritis and that’s because arthritis causes a very toxic environment in the knee, it is incredibly inflammatory and all of this leads to pain and disability.

The goal of biological treatment such as PRP and stem cells is to use your own cells to reset the environment in the knee to create and maintain a healthy and neutral environment. The idea is that these cells will not only reduce symptoms but they can also decrease the progress of knee arthritis.

Stem cell basics

When we talk about stem cell procedures or stem cell injections we are actually referring to a type of cell called adult stem cell or mesenchymal stem cell.

These cells have limited capacity when compared to pluripotent stem cells but they still have an enormous ability to reduce pain and symptoms so the two most common places to get mesenchymal stem cells are either from adipose or fat tissue or from the bone marrow.

It’s important to point out that once we isolate the mesenchymal stem cells and then inject them there is no current evidence that suggests that we are regrowing or regenerating anything. Remember that these cells are not pluripotent, you don’t get a new knee after stem cell injections. So you may ask what is the point then?

Well, MSCs are incredibly strong signaling cells that initiate cascades into the body that provides all sorts of health benefits but the most important among them are reducing pain and reducing inflammation how does that compare to what PRP does?

PRP stands for Platelet-rich plasma in PRP doctors draw your blood into a specialized tube put it in a centrifuge and then separate out your platelets and all the growth factors that circulate in your blood.

Doctors then take that out and then inject it into your knees again so we are not growing or regenerating anything but we are using the cells that initiate incredibly strong cascades in the body to provide pain relief and reduce inflammation.

Our current understanding of mesenchymal stem cell injections and PRP injections is that they initiate similar pathways to help improve symptoms. The question then becomes do they work and which is better?
Let’s tackle the first question. Do they work in treating knee arthritis?

This study looked at people with knee arthritis who were treated with

with adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells and adult stem cells from fat tissue and published their results at two years, in terms of pain there were significant improvements in 6 months, at 12 months it continued to improve until 24 months.

This treatment was given to people with minor, moderate to severe knee arthritis. These results are significant because back then the medical community thought that once you reach grade 4 bone arthritis is that there is absolutely nothing you can do except a knee replacement surgery. However, in these studies, even patients with severe knee arthritis showed improvements from the baseline.

But what about mesenchymal stem cells obtained from bone marrow? And how do they compare to the ones from adipose tissue?

Comparing those who got mesenchymal stem cell injections from bone marrow and adipose tissue. It was found that both groups posted significant improvements in their symptoms of knee arthritis. Researchers took more notice of the fact that those who received bone marrow from mesenchymal stem cells had significantly better outcomes compared to people who received adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells.

From these studies, we derive that both are effective in treating symptoms related to knee arthritis and that bone marrow may be better than adipose tissue.

Now what about PRP platelet-rich plasma injections have also been shown to incredibly be effective at treating symptoms related to knee arthritis. PRP according to the latest research studies is also as effective, when it comes to aiding patients who are suffering from knee pain, hampered knee function, and stiffness.

So which is better Mesenchymal stem cells or PRP injections?

According to a randomized control trial research titled Bone marrow Aspirate Concentrate is equivalent to platelet-rich plasma for the treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis at 2 years: A prospective Randomized Trial. Patients who received either of the two treatments both showed significant positive changes in the span of 24 months. Researchers found that there was no significant difference between PRP injection vs. stem cell therapy for Knee Arthritis.
Researchers concluded that for the treatment of osteoarthritis, PRP and bone marrow concentrate performed similarly out to 24 months.

Bone marrow was not superior to PRP. Both stem cell injections and PRP injections work similarly well for treating knee arthritis.

In the landscape of knee osteoarthritis management, both PRP and Stem Cell therapy emerge as formidable contenders. Their respective mechanisms of action, derived from rigorous scientific investigation, underscore their potential as therapeutic interventions.

Ultimately, the choice between these modalities necessitates a judicious consideration of patient-specific variables, clinical context, and cost-effectiveness. This discourse endeavors to provide a nuanced perspective for informed decision-making in the pursuit of optimal patient outcomes.

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Lourdes Duque Baron’s impact reaches far beyond her artistic talent; it extends to her unwavering dedication as a champion for stem cell therapy. She stands as a beacon of hope, demonstrating that science can redefine the narrative of aging. As her life story unfolds, she not only defies the passage of time but also leverages her influence to amplify the message of untapped potential within stem cells.

Her journey serves as a powerful example of how one can remain vibrant, engaged, and passionate, even in the face of aging. Through her advocacy and her very existence, she emphasizes that age can be a canvas painted with strokes of youthful energy, where the hues of creativity remain vivid and alive.

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Christel Payseng
Christel Payseng

Written by Christel Payseng

Antiquarian, someone who is simply enjoying her journey through life, Jesus Christ is King

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