00:00A question that we're getting more and more is, can stem cell exosomes help with increasing
00:06cartilage production in joints such as the knee that are undergoing osteoarthritis? And the answer
00:13is yes, absolutely. There was a great, great new study out of China at a university where the
00:20researchers looked at the effect of exosomes in both mice, knees, and then they actually did a
00:27dose escalation study in humans. So they actually did two research studies and put them into one
00:33paper. So how did they do this? Well, they produced umbilical cord stem cell exosomes, and then that's
00:39what they used in both the mice and the humans. And first in the mice, they induced osteoarthritis
00:46in the knee, which is pretty common. And then they injected the knees with significant amount of
00:52exosomes. And then they actually went later, they gave it time, and then they looked at the
00:57knees to see what was the effect. And it helped all around. First of all, it significantly decreased
01:03the inflammatory response that osteoarthritis produces. And they looked at specific things
01:08such as matrix metalloproteases and various cytokines, and they all improved dramatically.
01:16In addition, they found that there was a significant uptick in cartilage regeneration in the mice,
01:22predominantly because there was a lot of proliferation of chondrocytes. Apparently,
01:26stem cells get called in from the rest of the body, and then they become chondrocytes and experience
01:33proliferation, which then creates new cartilage. So armed with this knowledge in the mice, the
01:39researchers then turned to the human part of the study. They used the same umbilical cord stem cell
01:45exosomes. They took 45 knees, and they put them into a low dose, a medium dose, and a high dose.
01:54And the high
01:54dose is equivalent to what we use in patients' knees. And we actually combine three things. We combine Wharton's
02:02jelly, which has a lot of stem cells in it. We combine stem cell exosomes, similar to what they did
02:08in this
02:08study, and PRP. We call it the regenerative trifecta. So this study is only looking at one aspect of what
02:15we offer. But what did they find? In the highest dose group, at just three weeks, patients reported a
02:21highly significant reduction in their knee pain. So that was what happened initially. And then at the
02:27six-week mark, around 42 days, patients reported a significant improvement in their knee stiffness
02:34and their function. Increased activities of daily living, walking farther, stairs, things like that.
02:41So it got a lot better as time went along. And it continued to improve over a period of their
02:47follow-up,
02:47which was nine months. So it wasn't like they stopped after the six-week mark. Now, they did several
02:53MRIs at time points during the follow-up. And they did find that overall, these patients had an increase
03:00in cartilage thickness on the MRIs. Now, with the early pain reduction, the hypothesis by the Chinese
03:07researchers is that that was predominantly due to the inflammatory response being reduced. And then at
03:14the 42 days, the six-week mark, when patients started getting a lot of increased function, the hypothesis is
03:21that that was when the increased cartilage regeneration and thickness kicked in. And it sounds
03:28extremely reasonable. The results bear out. What they hypothesized is that you get significant pain
03:34reduction, followed by stiffness reduction, along with functional improvements. And that persisted
03:40for the whole follow-up, which was nine months. Now, once again, we offer a whole trifecta for patients,
03:46not just the stem cell exosomes, but also the Wharton's jelly from the umbilical cord and PRP
03:52together. That's R3's trademarked procedure. You can only get it with us at one of our 80 centers in
03:58the eight countries where we are. Call us to set up your free consultation at plus 1-844-GET-STEM,
04:05or you can email us at info at r3stemcell.com. Thanks.
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