Introduction and purpose: Articular cartilage lesions represent a major clinical problem because of the cartilage's limited self-healing capability. In this regard, current regenerative medicine approaches emphasize stem cell-based strategies, especially those that employ MSCs, as a hopeful approach toward the repair of cartilage lesions. This review aims to provide an updated synthesis of current strategies, including cellular mechanisms, delivery techniques, and clinical outcomes, with a focus on optimizing MSC-based interventions. A brief description of the state of knowledge: MSCs from different tissues, such as bone marrow, adipose tissue, synovium, and umbilical cord, manifest dissimilar biological behaviours, which influence their therapeutic performances. They promote the repair of damaged cartilage by direct differentiation, immunomodulatory effects, and paracrine signalling. Delivery systems, like intra-articular injections and scaffold-based methods, are being refined to enhance MSC retention, viability, and integration. Preclinical models confirm their regenerative capacity, while early clinical trials have shown safety and functional improvement. However, cell heterogeneity, hypertrophic differentiation, and inflammatory environments in joints are some issues yet to be overcome. Conclusions: Stem cell therapies, with MSCs in particular, hold immense potential for the regeneration of articular cartilage. Although present results are encouraging, additional studies should be conducted to standardize treatment protocols, improve cell sources and delivery systems, and establish long-term clinical efficacy.
Werenkowicz et al. (Thu,) studied this question.