New Diagnostic and Therapeutic Options in Canine Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative disease of the joints, characterized by irreversible destruction of articular cartilage. The disease process is accompanied by changes of immunological nature, resulting in local inflammatory reactions, with the production of proinflammatory cytokines and metalloproteinases. There is currently no effective treatment resulting in repair of degraded cartilage. Clinical application of mesenchymal cells (MSCs) creates new possibilities in the treatment of incurable diseases. Multipotent MSCs exhibit immunosuppressive activity and limited immunogenicity and have the potential to differentiate in vitro towards adipocytes, osteocytes, chondrocytes, myocytes and endothelial cells. Thanks to these biological properties, they are increasingly used in clinical therapies. In few scientific papers, the safety of cellular therapies in the group of dogs diagnosed with OA has been confirmed. In patients undergoing treatment with autologous intra-articular injections, no serious adverse effects were observed, and in the vast majority of patients an improvement in the clinical condition and reduction of pain and joint pain were achieved. The paper presents the current state of knowledge on osteoarthritis in dogs, on the biological properties of adipose tissue stem cells and their use in OA therapy and on monitoring the progress of treatment by imaging diagnostics.