Adult Mesenchymal Stem Cell therapy can potentially offer an important solution to cardiac disease. Congestive heart failure, deterioration in heart muscles (cardiomyopathy), and heart attack (myocardial infarction) are conditions where there is a lack of blood flow and a loss of millions of myocytes. This results in a loss of the contracting function of the muscle. Adult Mesenchymal Stem Cells appear to play an important role in regenerating the lost myocytes. Most clinical trials have shown positive results with intravenous injections into the muscle tissue of the heart and placed into the arteries.
Current Research
“Repairing the heart with stem cells” This article reviews various studies using a person’s own stem cells to treat heart disease. Conclusions of the studies have varied from modest improvement to dramatic improvement because of different approaches of harvesting and using stem cells. (March 2013)
“10 Years of Intracoronary and Intramyocardial Bone Marrow Stem Cell Therapy of the Heart: From the Methodological Origin to Clinical Practice” This is a review of clinical trials using bone marrow stem cells as a therapy following acute myocardial infarction and chronic ischemia. Results indicate a significant reduction of fatalities. Conclusions mention that further research is necessary to study the mechanisms of stem cell action in cardiac disease. (September 2011).
“Differentiation of Human Adipose-Derived Stem Cells into Beating Cardiomyocytes” This study used an animal model (rats) to determine if human adipose-derived stem cells could differentiate into cardiomyocytes and provide a source of donor cells for tissue engineering. This method provides a potential cardiac differentiation system to progress applications for cardiac stem cell therapy or tissue engineering.(April 2010).
“Effects of Adipose Tissue Derived Stem Cell Therapy After Myocardial Infarction: Impact of the Route of Administration” This study analyzed the effects of adipose derived stem cells after myocardial infarction (heart attack) and compared 2 different ways of administering the stem cells. This was a pig study including 28 pigs that suffered an acute myocardial infarction. 5 had adipose derived stem cells injected into the heart and 6 had adipose derived stem cells injected within the heart muscle. Both pathways showed to be effective in producing new cells. (April 2010).
“Adipose Tissue: A New Source for Cardiovascular Repair” This review article compares the use of bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells and adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells to aid in a patient’s recovery from acute myocardial infarction. Conclusions are that bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells are difficult to access, low in number in volume collected, and can make for a more difficult usefulness in some situations. In contrast, adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells are easily accessible in most patients, high in quantity per volume, and therefore are a preferable source of stem cells for repairing ischemic or acute myocardial infarction. (February 2010).
“Intracoronary Administration of Autologous Adipose Tissue Derived Stem Cells Improves Left Ventricular Function, Perfusion, and Remodeling After Acute Myocardial Infarction” This was a pig study done to compare the use of adipose derived stem cells with bone marrow derived stem cells and a control group and which could improve cardiac function after 30 days. Results indicated that using either bone marrow derived stem cells or adipose derived stem cells greatly improved cardiac function and perfusion 4 weeks after intracoronary transplantation. (November 2007).
“Adult Stem Cells for Cardiovascular Diseases: The Adipose Tissue Potential” This review article examines various clinical trials for using stem cell therapy for cardiac and vascular problems. There have been studies conducted with promising results of bone marrow derived stem cells or peripheral blood stem cells as therapy, the low number of stem cells obtained is a major constraint to implementing this therapy as a mainstream treatment to offer patients. The article noted that studies using adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells show promising results because of the simple liposuction procedure to obtain the stem cells and the large number of cells present in adipose tissue. (June 2007).
“Transplantation of Autologous Adipose-Derived Stem Cells Ameliorates Cardiac Function in Rabbits with Myocardial Infarction” This study investigated the hypothesis that Adipose Derived Stem Cells could regenerate cells of the heart following Myocardial Infarction (Heart Attack) and restore cardiac function. Using rabbits, the study transplanted adipose derived stem cells either untreated, 5-azacytidine pretreated, or phosphate buffer saline pretreated into the damaged heart. Follow up was at 5 weeks post transplant. Conclusions showed that adipose derived stem cells pretreated with 5-azacytidine was most efficient in preserving cardiac function. The results of this study should be tested on humans for further research of these positive results. (February 2007).