Cardiac stem cell therapy and arrhythmogenicity: prometheus and the arrows of Apollo and Artemis.
Cardiac cell therapy is an expanding scientific field which is yielding new insights into the pathogenesis of cardiac disease and offers new therapeutic strategies. Inherent to both these areas of research are the electrical properties of individual cells, the electrical interplay between cardiomyocytes, and their roles in arrhythmogenesis. This review discusses the potential mechanisms by which various candidate cells for cardiac therapy may modulate the ventricular arrhythmic substrate and highlights the data and lessons learnt from the clinical cardiac cell therapy trials published to date. Pro- and antiarrhythmic mechanistic factors are discussed, and the importance of their consideration in the design of any future clinical cell therapy trials.
Lyon
Alexander R
AR
National Heart and Lung Institute, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College, London, UK.
Harding
Sian E
SE
Peters
Nicholas S
NS
D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000209:etiology*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D017321:Clinical Trials, Phase I as Topic; D055724:Electrophysiological Phenomena; D006327:Heart Block / Q000209:etiology; D006329:Heart Conduction System / Q000503:physiopathology; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D019365:Metaphor; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000379:methods