Promotional Feature with Boehringer Ingelheim
One thing that all owners have in common is wanting the best for our horses, regardless of the goals we have for their active careers. When they are lame, we worry about their welfare, and whether they will be able to go back to the activities they love.
For horses suffering from joint disease, or a tendon or ligament injury, there are new veterinary medicines containing stem cells now available that aim to give you more active time with your horse and offer a brighter future for your partnership.
What are stem cells?
Stem cells are the body’s “master cells”. They can be thought of as the building blocks of the body and have many properties that can be harnessed for treating damaged tissues in joints, tendons, and ligaments.
Stem cell therapy isn’t a new idea – in fact, equine vets pioneered its use in treating injuries over a decade ago. But traditionally, a horse would need to be treated with its own stem cells, extracted from their bone marrow and sent away for processing before being injected back into the patient. This is a long, expensive, and sometimes painful exercise. There is also variability in the quality of stem cells between individual horses and therefore the results that are achieved.
New technology has enabled equine stem cells to be grown in a laboratory under special conditions that prime them specifically for treating either joints or tendons and ligaments. This standardised and targeted method of production means that licensed veterinary medicines containing stem cells are now available and ready for your vet to use, making them accessible to many more horses.
How can stem cell treatment help joint disease?
The initial cause of a horse’s joint problem may be an injury, developmental disorder, or simply wear and tear on the joint that has caught up with them.
Whatever the starting point, a cycle of inflammation and cartilage damage leads to persistent lameness. Traditional joint injections, usually steroids, aim to stop this vicious cycle and can work quickly to treat the lameness and inflammation that owners can see. However, steroids do not address the underlying cartilage damage that causes the joint to degenerate over time, and they can even be detrimental to cartilage health1 .
Stem cell therapy is different. Stem cells treat lameness and inflammation by releasing natural anti-inflammatory mediators into the joint2. But stem cells are also doing something else.
Stem cells talk to the patient’s own cartilage cells and instruct them to increase healthy cartilage production, reversing damage caused by arthritis and improving the quality of joint fluid that lubricates the joint and keeps it healthy3.
Essentially, by treating the disease and not just the signs, stem cell therapy aims to turn back the clock on joint disease, giving you and your horse more time to enjoy together.
A veterinary surgeon injects stem cells into a hock joint
How can stem cell treatment help tendon and ligament injuries?
Tendons and ligaments are particularly susceptible to injury in the horse. The news of this type of injury can be devastating for an owner, as we know that the road to recovery is a long and uncertain one.
Tendons are made up of long collagen fibres, arranged in bundles that give their extremely strong yet elastic properties. When an overstrain injury occurs, these fibres are damaged and cause pain and swelling in the area.
Tendons and ligaments heal slowly, and often the repair is made of fibrous scar tissue rather than the original, elastic fibres. This means that when a horse returns to work, they are susceptible to re-injury, up to 80% for some injuries4. This is heart-breaking when it occurs, as a horse may have had many months of rest and diligent care to get to the point of return to work, then a re-injury can feel you are back to square one.
Your vet will recommend a careful rehabilitation protocol to encourage the fibres to heal optimally. But there is now something else that can improve the quality of healing. If the lesion is suitable, an injection of stem cells into the damaged area has been shown to increase the proportion of healthy collagen fibres5, decrease scar tissue formation5, and reduce re-injury rate by more than 50%6.
A combination of stem cell treatment and proper rehabilitation is the best way to ensure you have done everything you can to achieve a lasting recovery and return your horse to an active life, doing what they love best.
So why not ask your vet about stem cell therapy and whether it could be suitable for your horse?
Don’t miss the latest Horse & Hound Podcast advertising special episode with Boehringer Ingelheim, in which we chat with vet Jessica Kidd about the ways in which stem cell therapy can turn back the clock on joint disease in horses.
Research references
1. Celeste C, Ionescu M, Poole RA et al. (2005). Repeated intraarticular injections of triamcinolone acetonide alter cartilage matrix metabolism measured by biomarkers in synovial fluid.
2. Ruiz, M., Maumus, M., Jorgensen, C. and Noël, D. (2019). Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Based Therapy of Osteoarthritis: Current Clinical Developments and Future Therapeutic Strategies
3. Broeckx S.Y., Martens A.M., Bertone A.L., Van Brantegem L., Duchateau L., Van Hecke L., Dumoulin M., Oosterlinck M., Chiers K., Hussein H., Pille F., Spaas J.H. (2019). The use of equine chondrogenic-induced mesenchymal stem cells as a treatment for osteoarthritis: a randomized, doubleblinded, placebo-controlled proof-of-concept study.
4. Dowling B.A., Dart A.J., Hodgson D.R., Smith R.K. (2010). Superficial digital flexor tendonitis in the horse.
5. Depuydt E., Broeckx S.Y., Van Hecke L., Chiers K., Van Brantegem L., van Schie H., Beerts C., Spaas J.H., Pille F., Martens A. (2021). The evaluation of equine allogeneic tenogenic primed mesenchymal stem cells in a surgically induced superficial digital flexor tendon lesion model.
6. RenuTend® study report 1 (2022). Date on file.
An educational service from Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health UK Ltd (“BI”). Further information available from BI, RG12 8YS, UK. ©2023. All rights reserved. Date of preparation: Jun 2023. UI-EQU-0068-2023. Use Medicines Responsibly.
