[Research progress in mesenchymal stem cell-related therapies in the treatment of temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis].

Temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis (TMJOA) is a kind of organic disease with synovial inflammation, cartilage degeneration and subchondral bone remodeling as the main pathological changes. The current treatment is mainly to relieve symptoms, but cannot completely stop the progression of the disease. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have multi-lineage differentiation potential and have good prospects in the repair therapy of TMJOA. Intra-articular injection of MSC from bone marrow, adipose, umbilical cord, dental pulp, etc. has been shown to be effective in numerous animal studies. The above exogenous MSCs can also be used as seed cells to participate in tissue engineering and repair more severe defects. Recent studies have shown that exosomes are important mediators of MSC action and have some potential in the treatment of TMJOA. As the mechanisms of TMJOA are further investigated, there is some prospect that endogenous repair capacity can be activated by local injection of relevant drugs targeting the resident stem cells in the joint.