Bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells are collected and isolated from patients.
Autologous bone marrow cells (50 ml) are collected under local anesthesia, from the posterior iliac crest. Bone marrow mononuclear cells are isolated by density gradient on Ficoll-Paque Plus tubes. Cells are washed and filtered through a 100 µm nylon mesh to remove cell aggregates, and resuspended in Ringer’s solution at a concentration of 108 cells/ml in a total volume of 1.3 ml.