2.1. Patient Characteristics
LBP
Of the 11 patients who initially participated, eight successfully completed the study. During the screening phase, two were excluded because they did not produce a sufficient number of ASCs in culture. At the 6-month follow-up, all remaining participants had finished the study (The study involved eight participants: seven male and one female, with ages ranging between 32 and 64 years (mean: 48.4 years). The duration of chronic LBP symptoms ranged from 11 to 96 months (mean: 46.6 months). Out of these participants, five participants (cases 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7) were categorized as overweight based on their body mass index (BMI: 25–29.9 kg/mPrior to the intradiscal injection, each vial contained 1.0 × 10In cases 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7, the ASCs chiefly displayed MSC-specific markers, CD44 and CD73, with an average prevalence of 99.6% and 97.0%, respectively. In contrast, case 1 showed a reduced CD44 prevalence (87.2%) but maintained a high CD73 rate (97.9%). For case 6, CD44 expression was at a full 100%, yet CD73 was slightly lower at 87.4%. Notably, all ASCs from the participants presented an almost negligible expression of CD45, with an average occurrence of roughly 0.9% (