Difference between biomarkers of tibial bone marrow and adipose tissue

Stem cells, with their regeneration capacity, long-term viability, and differentiation characteristics, have indispensable biological properties. As described by Hauner and Grigoradis et al., mesenchymal stem cell originating from adipose or bone marrow can be differentiated into many tissues such as adipocyte, chondrocyte, myeloblast, and osteoblast. The aim of our study is to compare the use of adipose and tibial bone marrow derived stem cells for therapeutic purposes in orthopedic surgery, which has not been clearly evaluated in the literature to our knowledge and to also evaluate their use.

Our study was performed between May 2014 and December 2016 in our clinic (Istanbul Medipol University, Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology) in 40 patients. Twelve patients were excluded. The ages of the 28 included patients ranged from 19 to 61 years, with a mean of 41.18 ± 13.39 years. The stem cell samples of these patients were analyzed by flow cytometry.

Tibial bone marrow stem cells were used in 15 cases and the mean age was 49.33 ± 9.15. Adipose-derived stem cells were used in 13 patients and the mean age was 31.77 ± 11.25. None of the patients had any minor/major complication in the areas where stem cells were collected.

Tibial-derived bone marrow has better results with regard to the complications, economic burden, and surgery time. Tibial-derived bone marrow harvesting and stem cell preparation time are one-fourth of the stem cell treatment prepared from adipose tissue and the surgical duration is shortened by 45 min.

If stem cell use is the preference of the surgeon, we have found that the tibial-derived stem cell system is more advantageous for ease of acquisition, cost analysis, and surgical time.