Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy

Cardiac stem cell therapy is used to treat or prevent cardiovascular diseases like myocardial infraction and heart failure.

The main agenda of this method is to regenerate the functionality of affected myocardium using variety of cells.

Types of cells used for Cardiac stem cell therapy:

·      Blood

·      Bone Marrow

·      Skeletal Muscles

·      Adipose tissue

·      Embryonic Stem Cells

Delivery methods used for Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy:

·      Intramyocardial Injection

·      Intracoronary Injection

·      Intravenous Injection

·      Chemotactic Mobilization

Mechanisms of recovery include:

·      Generation of heart muscle cells

·    Stimulation of growth of new blood vessels to repopulate damaged heart tissue

·      Secretion of growth factors

Human engineered Cardiac tissues:

Human engineered cardiac tissues are developed by experimental manipulation of pluripotent stem cells, such as embryonic stem cells and, human induced pluripotent stem cells to differentiate into human cardiomyocytes.

Enthusiasm for these bioengineered heart tissues has ascended because of their potential use in cardiovascular research and clinical treatments. hECTs give a remarkable in vitro model to inspect heart physiology with an species-specific advantage over refined cells in experimental studies.

Advantages:

·      In vivo regeneration of heart muscle.

·      hECTs afford exceptional in vitro model to analyse cardiovascular physiology with an species-specific particular advantage over cultured cells

·      In vitro models of drug screening

Stem Cell Therapy for Heart Failure:

Stem cells have the ability to cover damaged areas and also to initiate a cascade of biological events which both conclude in healing of the heart muscle.

Types of stem cells used to treat heart failure.

Human umbilical cord tissue (allogeneic mesenchymal) are used to treat Heart failure in recent days. The mesenchymal stem cells are recovered from donated umbilical cords following normal, healthy births.

Advantages of treating heart failure with allogeneic umbilical cord tissue-derived stem cells:

·      Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) matching is not necessary.

·      The stem cells with the best anti-inflammatory activity, immune modulating capacity, and ability to stimulate regeneration can be screened and selected.

·      Allogeneic stem cells can be administered multiple times over the course of days in uniform dosages that contain high cell counts.

·      Umbilical cord tissue provides an abundant supply of mesenchymal stem cells.

·      No need to collect stem cells from the patient’s hip bone or fat under anaesthesia.

·      Umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells are more robust than mesenchymal stem cells from other derivative.

·      No need to administer chemotherapy drugs like Granulocyte-colony stimulating factor to stimulate the bone marrow to produce granulocytes and stem cells and release them into the bloodstream.