Cellular Cardiomyoplasty Using Different Stem Cells in a Single Center

Cellular cardiomyoplasty is a procedure that uses live cells to replace, repair or enhance the biological function of a damaged or failing heart. Several types of autologous stem cells from adult human have been used for cellular cardiomyoplasty with encouraging outcomes. However, a direct comparison of different stem cells in a single clinical center has not been reported. We harvested stem cells from skeletal muscle (satellite cells) or bone marrow from different patients and utilized for cellular cardiomyoplasty. Eighteen male patients, suffering acute myocardial infarction were evenly assigned to coronary artery bypass graft and autologous satellite cell implantation or percutaneous coronary intervention and autologous bone marrow cell intra coronary infusion. Cardiac functions were assessed before and at six months after the treatment. All patients who survived the procedures without obvious arrhythmia, had an uneventful recovery, and were discharged from the hospital. One patient from each group was not subjected to coronary artery bypass graft or percutaneous coronary intervention. Significant improvement in NYHA classification and left ventricular ejection fraction were observed to a similar degree for both treatments at six month later. Comparable improvements in local contractility, blood perfusion, tissue viability, and wall thickness at infarct area for all patients who received either type of autologous stem cells were also found. Cellular cardiomyoplasty using either autologous satellite cells or autologous bone marrow cells has equal beneficial outcomes at six months follow-up. A longer follow-up time and large scale randomized controlled trail will be needed to determine the advantages of different stem cells.