Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Jul 26, 2021; 13(7): 944-970
Published online Jul 26, 2021. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v13.i7.944
First immunohistochemical evidence of human tendon repair following stem cell injection: A case report and review of literature
Eckhard Alt, Ralf Rothoerl, Matthias Hoppert, Hans-Georg Frank, Tobias Wuerfel, Christopher Alt, Christoph Schmitz
Eckhard Alt, Chairman of the Board, Isarklinikum Munich, Munich 80331, Germany
Ralf Rothoerl, Department of Spine Surgery, Isarklinikum Munich, Munich 80331, Germany
Matthias Hoppert, Department for Orthopedics and Trauma Surgery, Isarklinikum Munich, Munich 80331, Germany
Hans-Georg Frank, Tobias Wuerfel, Christoph Schmitz, Chair of Neuroanatomy, Institute of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich 80336, Germany
Christopher Alt, Director of Science and Research, InGeneron GmbH, Munich 80331, Germany
Author contributions: Alt EU, Rothoerl R, Hoppert M, Frank HG, Wuerfel T, Alt C and Schmitz C designed the report; Rothoerl R and Hoppert M performed treatment and collected the biopsy; Alt EU, Frank HG, Alt C and Schmitz C collected the patient’s clinical data; Alt EU, Frank HG, Wuerfel T, Alt C and Schmitz C analyzed the data and wrote the paper.
Informed consent statement: Consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Alt EU is Executive Chair of InGeneron, Inc. (Houston, TX) and Chairman of the Board of Isar Klinikum (Munich, Germany). Alt C is Director of Science and Research of InGeneron GmbH (Munich, Germany) and of SciCoTec (Grünwald, Germany), the principal shareholder of InGeneron, Inc., which owns InGeneron GmbH (Munich, Germany). Schmitz C served as consultant to SciCoTec and the Alliance of Cardiovascular Researchers, and is Advisory Medical Director of InGeneron, Inc.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Eckhard Alt, MD, PhD, Professor, Chairman of the Board, Isarklinikum Munich, Sonnenstr. 24-26, Munich 80331, Germany. e.alt@biomed-science.com
Received: January 29, 2021
Peer-review started: January 29, 2021
First decision: February 28, 2021
Revised: April 29, 2021
Accepted: June 25, 2021
Article in press: June 25, 2021
Published online: July 26, 2021
Processing time: 175 Days and 2.3 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Current treatment options for partial-thickness rotator cuff tear do not offer the potential to form new tendon tissue. The results of this study suggest, for the first time, that treating an injured human supraspinatus tendon with fresh, uncultured, autologous, adipose derived regenerative cells prepared at the point of care enables regenerative healing of an injured tendon, as evidenced by comprehensive immunohistochemical analysis of a biopsy taken from the patient’s tendon 2.5 mo post treatment. Regenerative healing without scar formation has previously been attributed only to fetal tendon development.