No abstract

Background: Osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) is a pathologic condition accompanied by the gradual destruction of subchondral bone and defects in the overlying articular cartilage. This case series reports the results of allogenic human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cell (hUCB-MSC) implantation for the treatment of osteochondral defect in two cases of juvenile osteochondritis dissecans. Case presentation: Two patients with osteochondral defect of the knee recovered from the disease enough to begin major exercise 1 year after hUCB-MSCs implantation. The IKDC, VAS, and Tegner score of the two patients showed an excellent improvement and concurrent arthroscopy was performed; cartilage regeneration of ICRS grade 1 similar to normal was observed. The modified two-dimensional MOCART scores increased in both cases over time. Conclusion: This is the first case series detailing the results of treating juvenile OCD lesions using hUCB-MSCs. This could be an option for treating juvenile OCD.