Long term outcomes of intracarotid arterial transfusion of circulatory-derived autologous CD34 + cells for acute ischemic stroke patients-A randomized, open-label, controlled phase II clinical trial

This phase II randomized controlled trial tested whether the intracarotid arterial administration (ICAA) of autologous CD34 + cells to patients within 14 ± 7 days after acute ischemic stroke (IS) could be safe and further improve short- and long-term outcomes. Between January 2018 and March 2022, 28 consecutive patients were equally randomly allocated to the cell-treated group (CD34 + cells/3.0 × 10 /patient) or the control group (receiving optimal medical therapy). CD34 + cells were transfused into the ipsilateral brain infarct zone of cell-treated patients via the ICAA in the catheterization room. The results demonstrated 100% safety and success rates for the procedure, and no long-term tumorigenesis was observed in cell-treated patients. In cell-treated patients, the angiogenesis capacity of circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs)/Matrigel was significantly greater after treatment than before treatment with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (all p