Adipose-derived stromal vascular fraction cells to treat long-term pulmonary sequelae of coronavirus disease 2019: 12-month follow-up.

Background Aims: Long coronavirus disease (COVID) is estimated to occur in up to 20% of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections, with many having persistent pulmonary symptoms. Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) have been shown to have powerful immunomodulatory and anti-fibrotic properties. Autologous adipose-derived (AD) stromal vascular fraction (SVF) contains MSC and other healing cell components and can be obtained by small-volume lipoaspiration and administered on the same day. This study was designed to study the safety of AD SVF infused intravenously to treat the pulmonary symptoms of long COVID.

Methods: Five subjects with persistent cough and dyspnea after hospitalization and subsequent discharge for COVID-19 pneumonia were treated with 40 million intravenous autologous AD SVF cells and followed for 12 months, to include with pulmonary function tests and computed tomography scans of the lung.

Results: SVF infusion was safe, with no significant adverse events related to the infusion out to 12 months. Four subjects had improvements in pulmonary symptoms, pulmonary function tests, and computed tomography scans, with some improvement noted as soon as 1 month after SVF treatment.

Conclusions: It is not possible to distinguish between naturally occurring improvement or improvement caused by SVF treatment in this small, uncontrolled study. However, the results support further study of autologous AD SVF as a treatment for long COVID.