Heart Disease

Your body's repair cells send out tiny "healing packages" that can help fix a heart after a heart attack. New medical studies show that using special patches to keep these packages in place helps the heart heal much faster.

Why freezing your young stem cells matters today. Bank your young Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) today to secure a high-potency, genetically-matched 'medical reserve' for your future. Research shows that younger MSCs offer enhanced healing, boost cognitive function, and are linked to extended healthspan, providing an ideal resource for future regenerative therapies while eliminating the risk of immune rejection.

BioCardia announced that the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health enrolled its first patient in the Phase 3 CardiAMP HF II trial. This trial is testing CardiAMP, an autologous (patient’s own) bone marrow cell therapy, in people with ischemic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) who still have signs of heart stress despite optimized medical care.

AIMS: Regenerative treatment with mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) has been promising in patients with ischaemic heart failure but needs confirmation in larger randomized trials. We aimed to study effects of intra-myocardial autologous bone marrow-derived MSC treatment in patients with severe ischaemic heart failure. __METHODS AND RESULTS__ The MSC-HF trial is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Patients were randomized 2 : 1 to intra-myocardial injections of MSC or placebo, respectively. The primary endpoint was change in left ventricular end-systolic volume (LVESV), measured by magnetic resonance imaging or computed tomography at 6 months follow-up. Sixty patients aged 30-80 years with severe ischaemic heart failure, New York Heart Association (NYHA) classes II-III, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) <45% and no further treatment options were randomized. Fifty-five patients completed the 6-month follow-up (37 MSCs vs. 18 placebo). At 6 months, LVESV was reduced in the MSC group: -7.6 (95% CI -11.8 to -3.4) mL (P = 0.001), and increased in the placebo group: 5.4 (95% CI -0.4 to 11.2) mL (P = 0.07). The difference between groups was 13.0 (95% CI 5.9-20.1) mL (P = 0.001). Compared with placebo, there were also significant improvements in LVEF of 6.2% (P<0.0001), stroke volume of 18.4 mL (P < 0.0001), and myocardial mass of 5.7 g (P = 0.001). No differences were found in NYHA class, 6-min walking test and Kansas City cardiomyopathy questionnaire. No side effects were identified. __CONCLUSION__ Intra-myocardial injections of autologous culture expanded MSCs were safe and improved myocardial function in patients with severe ischaemic heart failure.

This was a prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial - which is considered the gold standard for clinical research. Patients used their own stem cells to regenerate damaged heart muscle whose heart failure was caused by blocked coronary arteries (ischemic), showing fewer heart-related complications and better symptoms compared to placebo.

Researchers treated 17 heart attack patients with an infusion of stem cells taken from their own hearts. A year after the procedure, the amount of scar tissue had shrunk by about 50%.

Critical Review of multiple clinical trials using MSCs for heart disease conditions

Intramyocardial delivery of stem cells is more complicated than intracoronary administration, but it is safe and may provide better therapeutic outcomes.

This study illustrate that quality‐of‐life and functional capacity parameters improve with cell‐based therapy even if classic measures of cardiac function, such as ejection fraction, do not.