What is Osteoarthritis ?

 

Osteoarthritis is the progressive joint degenerative disease, primarily affecting a soft connective tissue known as the cartilages. It is mostly known to be the disease of middle aged or elderly people. Although, it can damage or affect any parts of the body; joints of the hands, knees, hips and spine are commonly affected. Being progressive in nature, it often gets worsen without any conventional way of curing it. Although, staying physically active, managing the weight and other technologically advanced treatment may help to manage the disease.

How Prevalent Is Osteoarthritis ?

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis. As per the CDC survey in the US itself, 26 million people were affected by the end of 2005, out of which 13.9 % were young adults above the age of 25 years and almost 33.9% are elderly people with average age more than 65 years. As per the incidence measured, involving the age and the sex of the individual; Hand OA, Hips OA and knee OA are the most common type. OA is also found to be more prevalent in women than in men.

The studies have thus confirmed that men have 48% higher risk as compared to women. Even in case of hip arthritis, men have observed to be of 36% reduced risk than in females.  CDC has as well confirmed, annual death rate of 0.2 to 0.3 deaths per 1, 00,000 population. Thus approximately 500 deaths are attributed to OA per year and the number is increasing every year.

Factors Responsible for Osteoarthritis

Although, scientists have linked up osteoarthritis as an autoimmune disorder, there are some other common risk factors that can aggravate the condition. Such as

• Being Overweight
• Age
• Joint injury
• Joint defects
• Genetic abnormality
• Joints being over-stressed due to some jobs such as sports, knee bending, repetitive motions
• Pregnancy associated calcium loss in case of women, oestrogen deficiency, etc.
• Presence of c reactive proteins in urine
• High bone density

Symptoms Associated with the Osteoarthritis

Being a joint disorder, osteoarthritis can occur in any joint, although the most prevalent amongst them are heavy weight bearing joints such as ankles, knees, spine, etc. Symptoms of the disease often develop very slowly but worsen with time. They may include

• Severe joint pains during or after the movements.
• Tenderness when light pressure is applied.
• Joints stiffness is a noticeable indication of joint disorders, especially in the morning or after a period or activity.
• Severe loss of flexibility is observed to the extent that the joints cannot be moved smoothly within their full range of motion.
• Grating sensation is experienced after the overuse of joints.
• Bone spurs, like hard bones are observed around the affected parts of the joints.

Prognosis Associated with the Osteoarthritis

Conventional treatments for curing the patient with osteoarthritis were with several goals such as

• Improve joint function
• Maintaining a healthy body weight
• Weight management
• Adapting a healthy lifestyle such as physical exercise, yoga, diet, etc.
• Rest as much as possible with joint care.

Apart from these rehabilitative approaches, doctors may also suggest you certain medications such as

• Non drug pain relief to control pain
• Steroidal drugs
• Complementary alternative therapies
• Surgery

What Goes Wrong in the Osteoarthritis?

Osteoarthritis is a joint disease mainly affecting cartilages. Cartilage is the soft tissue with the gliding surface, covering the ends of the bones of joints. Their main role in the joints is to allow smooth gliding of the bones over each other without creating much fiction. The tissue acts as a shock absorber, when the joints are in motion.

However, due to overuse of joints the top surface of the cartilage breaks down and hence wears away progressively. This allows greater exposure of two bones towards each other, causing an increase in the fiction between them. This increased fiction cause pain, swelling and loss of the motion of the joints. In more severe, chronic form of the disease; the pieces of bones even break off and float inside the joints spaces, that can eventually increase the pain.

How Stem Cells treatment for Osteoarthritis may help!

Stem cells are the mother cells that are responsible for developing an entire human body from a tiny two celled embryo; due to their unlimited divisions and strong power to differentiate into all the cells of different lineage. This power of stem cells has been harnessed by the technology to isolate them outside the human body, concentrate in the clean environment and implant back.

Thus, Stem Cell Treatment for Osteoarthritis involves administration of concentrated cells in the targeted area, wherein they can colonize in the damaged area, adapt the properties of resident stem cells and initiate some of the lost functions that have been compromised by the disease or injury.

The different stem cells such as mesenchymal stem cells isolated from different sources of both allogenic as well autologous sources are known to be differentiating into cells of osteogenic origin. Various research taken place worldwide, has confirmed the differentiation potential of stem cells.

 

Treatment of Osteoarthritis at GIOSTAR

We have mastered the technology for isolating maximum number of viable stem cells from either the autologous sources of your own body or allogeneically with the matched donor to treat various patients with osteoarthritis. We are the licensed, private organization with the excellent, well equipped state of the art facility to isolate process and enrich the viable number of stem cells, which can be re infused back into the patient’s body. Generally, these cells are administered through any one of the below mentioned methods depending upon our expert’s advice:

• Local Administration:-Through this mode, cell are infused directly at the targeted site of injury. Thus in case of osteoarthritis, stem cells are infused directly in the joints.

• Intravenous Administration:- Through this mode, cells are infused through the veins to expand blood volumes in the central nervous system, to ensure that the maximum number of cells are reaching to the targeted area.

Once infused back in the body, these cells can be repopulated at the damaged parts of the joints, through their strong paracrine effects and differentiate into lost or damaged cells of the cartilage, bones and muscles and create new blood vessels to improve the supply of blood or help in production of supporting cells to improve the functioning of the vascular system.

Thus with our standardized, broad based and holistic approach, it is now possible to obtain noticeable improvements in the patients with the osteoarthritis, in the symptoms as well as their functional abilities.

What Sets Us Apart

• Headquartered in USA.
• The founder is leading stem cell scientist credited with helping in setting up the stem cell research labs at top research institutions in the US including Salk Research Institute, Sanford-Burnham Institute, UCI, UCSD.
• Scientific And Medical Advisers/Consultants are comprising of luminaries who have worked at University of California, San Diego (UCSD), University of California Irvine (UCI).
• State of the art and the first private hospital in the India inaugurated by (then Chief Minister of State of Gujarat) and present Prime Minister of India.
• One of the world’s largest Stem Cell Hospital funded by the government of Gujarat, India.

Disclaimer : Results may vary for each patient. GIOSTAR practice the application of stem cell therapy within the legal regulations of each country.