Background of MSCs

• Able to divide to form bone, cartilage, muscle, fat and other tissues such as neural tissue, pancreatic tissue under induction;
• Home to site of injury and assist in repair;
• Enhance anti-inflammatory and immunosuppression.

More than 300 clinical trials are ongoing worldwide to uncover the medical potential of MSCs. Thus far, encouraging results have been published. MSCs have also been used in combination with HSCs as a dual therapy to promote faster engraftment of HSCs and to reduce immune system complications.

MSC Clinical Trials – Global Institutions

MSC Application Reports

• Treatment for knee cartilage damage was conducted by NUH Orthopaedic Surgery of Singapore, Dr Kevin Lee;
• Since 2006, 35 patients with worn knee cartilage underwent injection of autologous ex-vivo expanded MSCs from bone marrow;
• Patients were reported to have improvements in quality of life such as regaining ability to climb stairs and reduction of pain.

• In 2002, Sydney Scott was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia at 13 weeks;
• Baby Sydney was treated with chemotherapy followed by cord blood and MSC co-transplantation – a world’s first;
• MSC thought to have enabled blood stem cell engraftment;
• Baby Sydney was relapse free and medication free at the time of report.

• 69 heart attack patients were treated;
• Following angioplasty, doctor directly injected patients’ damaged heart site with MSC harvested from patients’ own bone marrow;
• Results showed significant improvements in patients’ left ventricular function.

• 18 stroke patients who had experienced a first stroke 6 months to 3 years previously were treated with modified MSCs obtained from bone marrow of two donors.
• Within a month of the procedure, patients showed signs of recovery, which sustained over several months.
• Principal investigator Dr. Gary Steinberg noted that patients who were previously in wheelchair started to walk after the treatment.

• 30 patients with heart failure were either intravenously infused with allogeneic MSC derived from umbilical cords or placebo;
• Compared to the placebo treatment, patients who received MSC showed sustained and significant improvement which resulted in greater quality of life;
• Through the study, it was established that the infusions were safe with no adverse effects.

• 24 COVID-19 patients were randomly enrolled in the study.
• Among 12 patients were infused twice with Mesenchymal stem cells derived from the umbilical cord for treatment. Another 12 patients were treated with standard medical care.
• More than half of patients who received infusion had discharged from the hospital within two weeks. More than 80% of them had recovered within a month.

• 72 patients who underwent either autologous bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells or autologous chondrocyte implantation to treat osteochondral defects for at least 10 years were followed up to compare the long-term clinical outcomes.
• There was an improvement in all patient-reported outcome scores after cartilage repair surgery and none of the patients in either group developed deep infection or tumor within the follow-up period.

DCR No. 4218, Version A, May 2021