Transcoronary Transplantation of Progenitor Cells after Myocardial Infarction

Intracoronary infusion of progenitor cells derived from bone marrow in patients with healed myocardial infarction resulted in moderate but significant improvement in global and regional ventricular function. Circulating progenitor cells were less effective. The mechanisms underlying the benefit are uncertain. This line of research is in its early stages but may hold promise for the future. Intracoronary infusion of progenitor cells derived from bone marrow in patients with healed myocardial infarction resulted in moderate but significant improvement in global and regional ventricular function. Chronic heart failure is common, and its prevalence continues to increase. 1 Ischemic heart disease is the principal cause of heart failure. 2 Although myocardial salvage due to early reperfusion therapy has significantly reduced early mortality rates, 3 postinfarction heart failure resulting from ventricular remodeling remains a problem. 4 One possible approach to reversing postinfarction heart failure is enhancement of the regeneration of cardiac myocytes as well as stimulation of neovascularization within the infarcted area. Initial clinical pilot studies have suggested that intracoronary infusion of progenitor cells is feasible and may beneficially affect postinfarction remodeling processes in patients with acute myocardial infarction. 5 – 9 However, . . .