The Full List of Adipose-Derived MSC Clinical Trials Recruiting Patients in Late 2026

This is the set of adipose MSC trials recruiting in 2026, returned by one ClinicalTrials.gov search, filtered to recruiting status, as of late July 2026. Ten studies appear, spread across knee osteoarthritis, neurologic conditions, and several other areas. Six of the ten sit in Phase 1 or Phase 1/2. Recruiting means a study is open for enrollment, and it means nothing beyond that.

TLDR: Ten adipose-derived mesenchymal stromal cell studies were listed as recruiting in late July 2026. Six are Phase 1 or Phase 1/2, and only two have reached late phase, both in knee osteoarthritis. Recruiting status describes enrollment, not evidence. The completed ADIPOA2 trial makes that plain, because the placebo arm numerically outperformed the cell arm. Adipose tissue and stromal vascular fraction remain investigational and are not FDA approved. Banking tissue preserves it for potential future use and cannot guarantee eligibility, access, or clinical benefit.

Important Disclaimer: Save My Fat is a connector linking patients and providers to a United States tissue bank. It does not provide FDA-approved treatments or cures and does not guarantee eligibility, access, or clinical benefit. Banking tissue does not enroll anyone in any study named below. This article is for educational purposes only, and readers should consult their own licensed healthcare professionals before pursuing research participation.

An open trial list is one of the most requested documents in this field and one of the most misread. A person finds a study in their own condition, sees the word recruiting, and reads it as a signal that something is finally working. The word carries no such meaning.

So this list arrives with instructions attached. Every row links to its registry record, because the record is the authority and this page is a snapshot. The phase column deserves more attention than the condition column.

Nothing here endorses a study or suggests that any of these products work.

Adipose MSC Trials Recruiting in 2026: The Full List

These ten records appeared under a ClinicalTrials.gov search for adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells filtered to recruiting status. Each row gives the registry number, the condition under study, the phase, the sponsor, and the country. The registry number links to the full record.

Five of the ten list sites in the United States, and one of those also runs in South Korea. The rest sit in China, Spain, Denmark, and France, outside practical reach for most American readers.

What the Phase Distribution Says About the Field

Sort the same ten records by phase and the picture changes. Phase describes the question a study was built to answer, not how promising it is. Early phase studies enroll small groups and ask about safety and dosing.

Six of the ten are Phase 1 or Phase 1/2. Only knee osteoarthritis has reached late phase testing, and those two records carry the largest enrollment targets on the list, 520 and 140 estimated participants.

That distribution is the real headline. A Phase 1 study asks whether a product is tolerated in a small group. A Phase 3 study asks whether it beats a comparator in numbers large enough to settle the matter. A field clustered in Phase 1 is still working on the first question, so the trial phase definitions are worth reading first.

Recruiting Is a Status, Not a Verdict

The ClinicalTrials.gov glossary defines recruiting in a single sentence: the study is currently recruiting participants. That is the entire definition. It says nothing about safety, nothing about benefit, and nothing about whether the study will finish.

ADIPOA2 shows what a completed study can say that an open one cannot. It randomized patients with mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis to a single injection into the joint of autologous adipose-derived mesenchymal stromal cells, at two million or ten million cells, or to placebo. Pers and colleagues published the randomized adipose cell result in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases in December 2025, with 97 patients analyzed.

At six months, 26 patients (47.3 percent) in the cell arm and 23 patients (54.8 percent) in the placebo arm were strict OARSI/OMERACT responders, a relative risk of 0.86, 95 percent confidence interval 0.58 to 1.28, P value.46. The authors concluded that a single injection did not significantly improve pain and function. The placebo arm did numerically better than the cell arm.

ADIPOA2 was recruiting once, and its record looked much like the rows above, in the same condition that occupies both late phase slots on this list. A list of open studies is an inventory of questions, not an evidence base.

Reading the Condition Column Carefully

The condition column is what readers scan first, and it is the part most likely to mislead. A study existing in a condition is not evidence about that condition. It means a sponsor obtained clearance to ask a question and found a site willing to ask it.

FDA’s consumer alert on regenerative products names arthritis and Alzheimer’s among the conditions these products are not approved for, alongside Parkinson’s, ALS, cardiovascular and lung disease, autism, blindness, and COVID-19. Two of those named conditions appear in the table above. Both things are true at once: a trial can be open, and no approved product exists.

The List Reflects Late July 2026 and Nothing After

Trial status changes constantly, so this table will age. Under 42 CFR 11.64, sponsors must post a status change within 30 calendar days, and a suspended, terminated, or withdrawn record must carry a why study stopped entry. A row that reads recruiting today can read terminated next month.

Records also drift quietly. The glossary applies Unknown status when a recruiting record passes its completion date and goes two years without verification. Stale records get quoted as current more often than almost any other error here, which makes a search result a starting point rather than an answer.

Nothing vanishes, at least. The registry states that information about each study is permanently available in the database, even after the study ends. Anyone acting on the table above should open the record and read today’s status, using the same habits that apply to finding legitimate clinical trials.

Banking Adipose Tissue Does Not Enroll Anyone in These Studies

This needs saying plainly, because the two ideas get blended constantly. Banking tissue with Save My Fat does not enroll a person in any study on this page. It does not create eligibility for one. It does not put a name in front of a sponsor, a site, or an investigator.

Trials recruit on their own criteria. Age, confirmed diagnosis, disease severity, prior therapies, other medical conditions, and distance from the site all decide who qualifies, and the protocol fixes those rules before the first participant enrolls. A stored sample changes none of them.

Sourcing works the same way, because a study supplies its own investigational product under its own protocol. The Phase 3 knee osteoarthritis study in China compares an allogeneic adipose mesenchymal stromal cell product against sodium hyaluronate, meaning donor material from the manufacturer. The Phase 2b/3a study uses an autologous product collected under its own procedures. In neither design would privately banked tissue be the material used.

What banking does is narrower, and it deserves stating without inflation. It preserves tissue collected at one point in time for potential future use, if a pathway ever exists and a licensed physician finds it appropriate. Readers tracking this can compare against the earlier adipose trial roundup.

Frequently Asked Questions

What adipose-derived MSC clinical trials are currently recruiting patients as of late 2026?

Ten records appeared in a registry search for adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells filtered to recruiting status in late July 2026, and the table above lists all ten. They cover knee osteoarthritis, stress urinary incontinence, burn scars, Sjogren xerostomia, recurrent glioblastoma, chronic traumatic brain injury, Crohn disease, acute kidney injury, and Alzheimer disease. Different search terms return different sets.

How has the trial landscape changed since the earlier 2026 active trials post?

The list turns over, and that is the useful answer. Records open, close, finish, and stop, and sponsors have 30 days to post a status change. Rather than claim a direction nobody has verified line by line, compare this table against the earlier roundup one record at a time.

What conditions are being studied across these trials?

Knee osteoarthritis appears twice and holds both late phase slots. The remaining eight cover female stress urinary incontinence, burn injury scar remodeling, xerostomia in Sjogren syndrome, recurrent glioblastoma and grade 4 astrocytoma, chronic traumatic brain injury, Crohn disease, acute kidney injury, and Alzheimer disease. A condition appearing on this list means a question is being asked, not answered.

How can a patient determine if they are eligible for one of these trials?

Eligibility lives in the record. Each entry lists inclusion and exclusion criteria, study sites, and contact information, and the study team makes the determination, not the patient and not a tissue bank. Bring the record to the physician managing the condition, since diagnosis details and prior therapies usually decide the answer.

What phase are most of these trials currently in?

Six of the ten are Phase 1 or Phase 1/2, two are Phase 2, and two are late phase, both in knee osteoarthritis. Early phase studies enroll small groups and ask about safety and dosing rather than benefit. That distribution describes a field still working through early questions in most of these conditions.

Does banking adipose tissue enroll a person in any of these trials?

No. Banking preserves tissue and does nothing else. It does not enroll anyone, does not create eligibility, and does not connect anyone to a sponsor or a site. Trials recruit on their own criteria and supply their own investigational product, whether donor-derived or collected under the study protocol, so banked tissue is not the material used.

Key Takeaways

Ten adipose-derived mesenchymal stromal cell studies were open to enrollment in late July 2026, and the table above names each one with a link to its record. The phase distribution is the finding that matters most. Six of the ten sit in Phase 1 or Phase 1/2, two are Phase 2, and only knee osteoarthritis has reached late phase testing, which places most of this work at the safety and dosing stage.

Recruiting status describes enrollment and nothing else, and ADIPOA2 is the reason to take that seriously, because a completed randomized trial in knee osteoarthritis found 47.3 percent responders on cells against 54.8 percent on placebo, with no significant improvement in pain and function. Trial status changes constantly, so treat this page as a snapshot of one registry search and read the current record before acting on any row. Banking tissue does not enroll anyone, does not create eligibility, and is not the material these studies use.

Save My Fat operates as a tissue preservation service, not a medical practice or treatment provider. Stem cell and regenerative medicine regulations vary by state, including specific informed-consent and disclosure requirements in Florida, Utah, California, Georgia, and Tennessee governing tissue and stem cell services. Banking adipose tissue does not connect patients to any treatment pathway, and any future use depends on FDA regulatory status, physician guidance, and the availability of approved or investigational pathways at that time.

Patients weighing adipose tissue banking for potential future use can review current pricing or send questions to the Save My Fat team.

Save My Fat works with a U.S.-based tissue bank for laboratory processing and storage.

This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical or legal advice. Legal and medical review including neurology and neurosurgery input is required before publication. Please consult your neurologist or neurosurgeon before making any decisions about banking, treatment, or research participation.

About the author: Oscar Tellez is the founder and CEO of Save My Fat. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science and Health Promotion from Florida Atlantic University. He has spent more than a decade in the regenerative medicine industry across product distribution, laboratory and vendor relationships, and provider training. He is not a licensed clinician, and this article is educational, not medical advice.

Related guide: adipose stem cell trials.