Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy for Sports Injuries - From Research to Clinical Practice

The number of sports-related injuries is on the rise as more people are involved in sports, especially the extreme sports that are prone to injury. A serious sports injury might end the career of an athlete. Thus, prompt and effective treatment is very important for these injuries. Cell-based therapy is becoming more popular as a potential new treatment for sports injuries that are refractory to conventional therapy. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are commonly used in the treatment of sports injuries as they are safe and will not be rejected by the recipient. MSCs secrete paracrine factors that modulate the host immune response, promote angiogenesis, enhance cell migration and survival as well as prevent fibrosis. The safety and efficacy of MSC therapy in treating sports injuries involving the muscle, ligament, tendon, bone, cartilage, and nervous tissues have been demonstrated in many preclinical and clinical studies. However, more studies especially the large-scale randomized clinical trial need to be done in order to determine the adequacy of MSC therapy in treating different sports injuries. In this review, we discussed the treatment for sports injuries, focusing on MSC therapy, using data from preclinical and clinical studies.