Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy

According to the director of cardiac cell therapy at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Amit N. Patel, MD, MS, an author of an introductory article “Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy from Bench to Bedside”, cardiac stem cell therapy “involves delivering a variety of cells into hearts following myocardial infarction or chronic cardiomyopathy.”

Through the developments in cardiac stem cell therapy, the possibility of transplanting cells for heart patients increases. The suitability of sources for cardiac transplant, according to Patel, will be dependent on the kind of disease that will be subjected to treatment. For instance, cases off acute myocardial infarction require a cell that is capable of reducing myocardial necrosis and supplementing vascular blood flow. On the other hand, cases of heart failures need cells that has the capacity of replacement and promotion of myogenesis, deterioration of apoptopic mechanisms and reactivation of inactive cell processes.

Stem cells in the heart are proven by recent studies. One stem cell that is promising in cardiac cell therapy is the adult bone marrow-derived mensenchymal stem cells. These stem cells exhibit great signalling and properties of regeneration when they are used to heart tissues following a myocardial infarction. The drawback of this operation is the survival rate of the transported stem cells. The grafted stem cells show a poor survival because of low vascular supply subsequent to a heart attack and an active inflammatory process.

This problem can somehow be resolved through a process called transmyocardial revasularization wherein channels are created in heart tissues through laser and other technological devices. Through this process, there will be an increase of supply of oxygenated blood and enhancement of cell retention. The survival of grafted cells is also prolonged through tranmyocardial revasularization. This process can also act with other signalling factors, resulting to a more effective upshot on the remodeling of myocardial.