Stem Cell Therapy After Heart Attack Found Beneficial

Infusion of bone marrow-derived progenitor cells directly into a coronary infarct reduces risk of death, myocardial infarct (MI), or another revascularization procedure by half, according to a new study.

Researchers at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University (Frankfurt, Germany) analyzed data from the REPAIR-AMI (Reinfusion of Enriched Progenitor Cells and Infarct Remodeling in Acute MI) trial, which randomized 204 revascularized acute MI patients.

The researchers found a statistically significant 2.5% improvement in global left-ventricular ejection fraction at four months for patients randomized to receive the bone marrow injection. After adjusting for age, diabetes, time to infusion, baseline left ventricular ejection fraction, end systolic volume, and aldosterone antagonist use at hospital discharge, the odds ratio for a combined endpoint of death, MI, or revascularization was 0.56 among patients who received the progenitor cell infusions. The results were presented at the 2006 Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) meeting held in Washington (DC, USA) in October 2006.

"The results confirm the safety of intracoronary infusion of bone-marrow-derived mononuclear cells, and the treatment improved functional recovery with a significant reduction of the combined end point of death, acute MI, or rehospitalization,” said lead author Andreas M. Zeiher, M.D.

Dr. Zeiher said that the positive results for REPAIR-AMI were due in part to the timing of the infusion at four to six days after reperfusion, and that this post-infarction point may be the best time to harvest cells, because infarction appears to trigger activation of potentially more potent progenitor cells.



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