Not All Stem Cells Are Created Equal

Stem cell therapy holds promise for chronic heart failure (CHF) management as animal studies document that these cells modify local inflammatory conditions, release factors that stimulate angiogenesis and intrinsic tissue repair, modify adverse ventricular remodeling and restore function. Clinical trial results however, are more variable with some showing beneficial effects and others without. Pre-clinical studies are conducted in otherwise healthy animals, but clinical studies enroll CHF patients with multiple comorbidities (aging, diabetes, hypertension, inflammation, etc.) that negatively affect regenerative capacity. Significant variability in regenerative response is linked with variations in cell characteristics (e.g. migratory and adhesion capacity, clonogenicity, surface marker expression, and paracrine factor release). Using a "personalized" medicine approach (i.e. tailoring treatment to patient characteristics to optimize benefit), we propose to optimize cardiac cell therapy efficacy by prospect...