[Cell therapy to treat heart failure].
BACKGROUND
Systolic heart failure is mainly due to a decreased left ventricular systolic function after myocardial infarction. Despite significant improvements in medical management of heart failure, the prognostic remains poor, with a 5-years survival only of 30%.


OBJECTIVE
Current treatments are only able to delay progression toward end-stage heart failure. Heart transplantation is accessible only for selected patients. Thus, in the context of post-myocardial infarction, cell therapy appears to be a new original technique, available for the majority of patients and potentially non-invasive.


CONCLUSIONS
After promising results in experimental models, a phase I clinical trial has been conducted in France, showing the feasibility of intracardiac autologous skeletal myoblast implantation. Other studies in Europe and USA are currently testing a variety of cells and delivery systems. A phase II-trial will begin in France.
Mouquet
F
F
Service de cardiologie C, hôpital cardiologique de Lille, CHR et université de Lille, boulevard du Professeur-Leclercq, 59037 cedex, Lille, France. fmouquet@libertysurf.fr <fmouquet@libertysurf.fr>
Susen
S
S
Van Belle
E
E
Bauters
C
C
Jude
B
B
D000818:Animals; D017690:Cell Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D017321:Clinical Trials, Phase I as Topic; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D023421:Models, Animal; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000637:transplantation; D032446:Myoblasts / Q000637:transplantation; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000150:complications