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Cardiac stem cell therapy: Have we put too much hype in which cell type to use?

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Abstract

Injection of various stem cells has been tested with the hopes of improving cardiac function after a myocardial infarction (MI). However, there is continued controversy as to which cell type is best for repair. Due to technical differences in cell isolation, processing, delivery, and cardiac functional assessment by various investigators, it has been difficult to directly compare the results of different cells. Using same techniques to evaluate the efficacy of different cell types, we have separately delivered bone marrow cells (BMCs), cardiospheres (CSs), CS-derived Sca-1+/CD45− cells, human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes, and BMC extract into infarcted murine myocardium and found that all of these treatments reduce infarct size and improve cardiac function post-MI similarly without one regimen being superior to another. The beneficial effects appear to be via paracrine influences. Different progenitors lead to improved cardiac function post-MI, but it is premature to hype any specific cell type at this time.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Joel Karliner for his input and assistance in preparation of this manuscript. The authors gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the Wayne and Gladys Valley Foundation, the UCSF Cardiac Stem Cell Foundation, the Torian Foundation, the Leone-Perkins Foundation, the Vadasz Foundation, and the Harold Castle Foundation to Y.Y. and a Comprehensive Research Grant from California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (RC1-00104) to HSB and YY.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA

    Jianqin Ye & Yerem Yeghiazarians

  2. Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA

    Yerem Yeghiazarians

  3. Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, University of California, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA

    Yerem Yeghiazarians

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  1. Jianqin Ye
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Correspondence to Yerem Yeghiazarians.

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Ye, J., Yeghiazarians, Y. Cardiac stem cell therapy: Have we put too much hype in which cell type to use?. Heart Fail Rev 20, 613–619 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10741-015-9494-7

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