Transplantation of progenitor cells and regeneration enhancement in acute myocardial infarction (TOPCARE-AMI)

Experimental studies suggest that transplantation of blood-derived or bone marrow-derived progenitor cells beneficially affects postinfarction remodeling. The safety and feasibility of autologous progenitor cell transplantation in patients with ischemic heart disease is unknown. We randomly allocated 20 patients with reperfused acute myocardial infarction (AMI) to receive intracoronary infusion of either bone marrow-derived (n=9) or circulating blood-derived progenitor cells (n=11) into the infarct artery 4.3+/-1.5 days after AMI. Transplantation of progenitor cells was associated with a significant increase in global left ventricular ejection fraction from 51.6+/-9.6% to 60.1+/-8.6% (P=0.003), improved regional wall motion in the infarct zone (-1.5+/-0.2 to -0.5+/-0.7 SD/chord; P