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(Circulation. 2006;114:353-358.)
© 2006 American Heart Association, Inc.

Controversies in Cardiovascular Medicine

Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy

Need for Optimization of Efficacy and Safety Monitoring

Peter Oettgen, MD

From the Division of Cardiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Mass.

Correspondence to Peter Oettgen, MD, Division of Cardiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA 02115. E-mail joettgen@bidmc.harvard.edu

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

	Introduction

 
Cardiovascular disease remains the number one cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States and Europe. In the United States alone, 1 million patients suffer a myocardial infarction every year, with an associated mortality of 25% at 3 years.¹ A more sobering statistic is the fact that there are 5 million Americans with congestive heart failure, with an associated 20% mortality per year. This remains the case despite advances in pharmacotherapy, cardiac resynchronization therapies, and the use of implantable cardioverter-defibrillators.² Some patients with end-stage congestive heart failure are considered for cardiac transplantation, but the demand for this therapeutic approach greatly outweighs the availability of donor hearts. Over the past few years, several animal studies and a few clinical trials have supported the use of stem cells as a potential therapeutic modality to address this unmet clinical need.

Response by Boyle et al p 358

	Type of Cells Used for Cardiac Transplantation

 
Several different types of cells have been used in both animal studies and patients to promote the repair of damaged myocardium. The 2 main sources of stem cells are adult stem and embryonic stem (ES) cells.

ES Cells
ES cells are derived from the inner mass of developing embryos during the blastocyst stage. Characteristic features of ES cells include their proliferative and self-renewing properties and their ability to differentiate into a wide variety of cell types, including cardiac myocytes.³ The major concerns with their use in human trials include the formation of teratomas when ES cells are injected into immunocompromised animals. This is particularly important because the . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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