Degenerative musculoskeletal diseases (DMDs), including osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, degenerative disc disease, and sarcopenia, present major challenges in the aging population. Patients with DMDs present with pain, functional decline, and reduced exercise tolerance, which result in long‐term or permanent deficits in their ability to perform daily activities. Current strategies for dealing with this cluster of diseases focus on relieving pain, but they have a limited capacity to repair function or regenerate tissue. Cell‐based therapies have attracted considerable attention in recent years owing to their unique mechanisms of action and remarkable effects on regeneration. In this review, current experimental attempts to use cell‐based therapies for DMDs are highlighted, and the modes of action of different cell types and their derivatives, such as exosomes, are generalized. In addition, the latest findings from state‐of‐the‐art clinical trials are reviewed, approaches to improve the efficiency of cell‐based therapies are summarized, and unresolved questions and potential future research directions for the translation of cell‐based therapies are identified.

Microglia, as the resident immune cells and first responder to neurological insults, play an extremely important role in the pathophysiological process of spinal cord injury. On the one hand, microglia respond rapidly and gather around the lesion in the early stage of injury to exert a protective role, but with the continuous stimulation of the injury, the excessive activated microglia secrete a large number of harmful substances, aggravate the injury of spinal cord tissue, and affect functional recovery. The effects of microglia depletion on the repair of spinal cord injury remain unclear, and there is no uniformly accepted paradigm for the removal methods and timing of microglia depletion, but different microglia depletion strategies greatly affect the outcomes after spinal cord injury. Therefore, this review summarizes the physiological and pathological roles of microglia, especially the effects of microglia depletion on spinal cord injury—sustained microglial depletion would aggravate injury and impair functional recovery, while the short-term depletion of microglial population in diseased conditions seems to improve tissue repair and promote functional improvement after spinal cord injury. Furthermore, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of major strategies and timing of microglia depletion to provide potential strategy for the treatment of spinal cord injury.

Despite numerous studies on chondrogenesis, the repair of cartilage—particularly the reconstruction of cartilage lacunae through an all-in-one advanced drug delivery system remains limited. In this study, we developed a cartilage lacuna-like hydrogel microsphere system endowed with integrated biological signals, enabling sequential immunomodulation and endogenous articular cartilage regeneration. We first integrated the chondrogenic growth factor transforming growth factor-β3 (TGF-β3) into mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs). Then, TGF-β3@MSNs and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) were encapsulated within microspheres made of polydopamine (pDA). In the final step, growth factor-loaded MSN@pDA and a chitosan (CS) hydrogel containing platelet-derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB) were blended to produce growth factors loaded composite microspheres (GFs@μS) using microfluidic technology. The presence of pDA reduced the initial acute inflammatory response, and the early, robust release of PDGF-BB aided in attracting endogenous stem cells. Over the subsequent weeks, the continuous release of IGF-1 and TGF-β3 amplified chondrogenesis and matrix formation. μS were incorporated into an acellular cartilage extracellular matrix (ACECM) and combined with a polydopamine-modified polycaprolactone (PCL) structure to produce a tissue-engineered scaffold that mimicked the structure of the cartilage lacunae evenly distributed in the cartilage matrix, resulting in enhanced cartilage repair and patellar cartilage protection. This research provides a strategic pathway for optimizing growth factor delivery and ensuring prolonged microenvironmental remodeling, leading to efficient articular cartilage regeneration.

Evidence from numerous studies has revealed the synchronous progression of aging in bone and muscle; however, little is known about the underlying mechanisms. To this end, human muscles and bones are harvested and the aging‐associated transcriptional dynamics of two tissues in parallel using single‐cell RNA sequencing are surveyed. A subset of lipid‐associated macrophages (triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2, TREM2⁺ Macs) is identified in both aged muscle and bone. Genes responsible for muscle dystrophy and bone loss, such as secreted phosphoprotein 1 (SPP1), are also highly expressed in TREM2⁺ Macs, suggesting its conserved role in aging‐related features. A common transition toward pro‐inflammatory phenotypes in aged CD4⁺ T cells across tissues is also observed, activated by the nuclear factor kappa B subunit 1 (NFKB1). CD4⁺ T cells in aged muscle experience Th1‐like differentiation, whereas, in bone, a skewing toward Th17 cells is observed. Furthermore, these results highlight that degenerated myocytes produce BAG6‐containing exosomes that can communicate with Th17 cells in the bone through its receptor natural cytotoxicity triggering receptor 3 (NCR3). This communication upregulates CD6 expression in Th17 cells, which then interact with TREM2⁺ Macs through CD6‐ALCAM signaling, ultimately stimulating the transcription of SPP1 in TREM2⁺ Macs. The negative correlation between serum exosomal BCL2‐associated athanogene 6 (BAG6) levels and bone mineral density further supports its role in mediating muscle and bone synchronization with aging.

Objective: The aim of the present study is to focus on the most popular winter sports programs, and to investigate the global research status and trends in sports-related injuries. Methods: The Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection database was chosen as original data and used for extracting publications on ice and snow sports injuries on 18 February 2022. Articles published in English between 1995 to 2022 were selected for this study. Results: Finally, for the topic search, a sum of 1605 articles were extracted and used for further analysis. The country and journal ranked first—in terms of total number, total citations and the highest H-index of publications—were the USA and American Journal of Sports Medicine, respectively. The affiliation with the most cited publications was the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences. The most influential first author with the most citations (2537 times), the greatest average citations per article (65.05 times) and the highest H-index (26) was Bahr R. Articles were divided into five main clusters based on keyword analysis: injuries study, head and neck damage study, risk study, therapy study and epidemiology study. Studies related to epidemiology and brain damage in ice and snow sports will continue to be research hot topics. Conclusions: In conclusion, our study indicates that the ice and snow sports injuries research domain is more prevalent in North America and Europe. This study contributes to a comprehensive understanding of ice and snow sports injuries and provides hotspot directions.