title: Cardiac cell therapy: a treatment option for cardiomyopathy.
abstract: Cardiomyopathy is a common clinical disorder affecting the heart muscle. This disease process frequently leads to congestive heart failure and will often progress to end-stage heart failure. Present standard of care treatment options for cardiomyopathy include medical management, lifestyle changes, and surgical procedures including left ventricular assist devices as a destiny therapy or bridging to heart transplantation. Even despite advances in drug therapy, mechanical assist devices, and organ transplantation, more than half of the persons with cardiomyopathy will die within 5 years of diagnosis. Small uncontrolled clinical trials have demonstrated cardiac stem cells as a treatment option for cardiomyopathy. The theory for the individual or combined mechanism of action for stem cells includes (1) transdifferentiation to blood vessels or myocardium, (2) fusion with the native dysfunctional myocytes to augment function, and (3) homing that may be a systemic or panacrine response for recruiting other cells, and growth factors to help improve oxygen delivery and myocardial function. The field of cardiac cell therapy is rapidly progressing to gather more data with intermediate-size, double-blinded trials that will demonstrate the safety and efficacy of cell therapy.
authors.affiliation: University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. sheplersa@upmc.edu
authors.forename: Sherrill A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Shepler
authors.forename: Amit N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Patel
mesh_terms: D009202:Cardiomyopathies / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*; D017690:Cell Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods* / Q000451:nursing; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass; D003422:Critical Care / Q000379:methods*; D018450:Disease Progression; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000209:etiology; D016027:Heart Transplantation; D006353:Heart-Assist Devices; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D032342:Muscle Cells / Q000637:transplantation*; D024802:Nurse's Role; D018579:Patient Selection; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods* / Q000451:nursing; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon