title: Stem and progenitor cell therapy for pulmonary arterial hypertension: effects on the right ventricle (2013 Grover Conference Series).
abstract: In experimental animals and in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a wide spectrum of structural and functional conditions is known that may be responsible for the switch of a state of "compensated" right ventricular (RV) hypertrophy to a state of RV failure. In recent years, therapy with differentiated cells, endothelial progenitor cells, and mesenchymal stem cells has been shown to cause partial or complete reversal of pathological characteristics of PAH. The therapeutic effects of stem or progenitor cell therapy are considered to be (1) paracrine effects from stem or progenitor cells that had engrafted in the myocardium (or elsewhere), by compounds that have anti-inflammatory, antiapoptotic, and proangiogenic actions and (2) unloading effects on the right ventricle due to stem or progenitor cell-induced decrease in pulmonary vascular resistance and decrease in pulmonary artery pressure.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands ; Department of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Arnoud
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: van der Laarse
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Christa M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Cobbaert
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Division of Molecular Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
authors.forename: Soban
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Umar
keywords: cell therapy; differentiation; endothelial progenitor cells; engraftment; homing; mesenchymal stem cells; paracrine factors; progenitor cells; pulmonary arterial hypertension; right ventricular failure; right ventricular hypertrophy; stem cells