Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 8, 2026
An Immunological Model for Heterotopic Heart and Cardiac Muscle Cell Transplantation in Rats
Published on: May 8, 2020
Cell transplantation for post-ischemic heart failure
J T Vilquin1, J P Marolleau, A Hagege
1INSERM U 523-Institut de Myologie, Groupe hospitalier La-Pitié-La-Salpêtrière, 47, boulevard de l'Hôpital, 75651 Paris.
Insights
Cell transplantation offers a promising strategy for treating post-ischemic heart failure. Skeletal muscle cell (SMC) transplantation has shown encouraging results in clinical trials, improving cardiac function.
Area of Science:
- Regenerative Medicine
- Cardiovascular Research
- Cell Therapy
Background:
- Post-ischemic heart failure presents a significant public health challenge with limited therapeutic options.
- Cell transplantation is being explored as an alternative strategy to restore cardiac structure and function.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review various cell types and clinical trials for cell transplantation in treating ischemic heart failure.
- To assess the potential of different cell sources, including cardiomyocytes, endothelial progenitors, and skeletal muscle cells.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature on cell types used in cardiac repair.
- Analysis of clinical trial data for cell transplantation in ischemic heart failure.
- Discussion of challenges and advancements in cell production and delivery.
Main Results:
- Fetal/neonatal cardiomyocyte transplantation shows functional success but faces limitations.
- Mesenchymal stem cells may yield autologous cardiomyocytes.
- Endothelial progenitors from bone marrow can promote neoangiogenesis.
- Skeletal muscle cell (SMC) transplantation improved myocardial function in animal models and early human trials.
Conclusions:
- SMC transplantation has progressed to phase II clinical trials, showing encouraging results for severe ischemic heart failure.
- Ongoing trials are evaluating bone marrow-derived cells for safety and efficacy.
- Cellular therapies hold significant promise for managing ischemic heart failure.
Abstract:
Post-ischemic heart failure is becoming a major issue for public health in occidental countries and therapeutical options are limited. Therefore cell transplantation was developed as an alternative strategy to improve cardiac structure and function. This review describes the multiple cell types and clinical trials considered for use in this indication. The transplantation of fetal or neonatal cardiomyocytes has proven to be functionally successful, but ethical as well as technical reasons make their clinical use limited. Recent reports, however, suggested that adult autologous cardiomyocytes could be prepared from stem cells present in various mesenchymal tissues. Alternatively, endothelial progenitors originating from bone marrow or peripheral blood could promote the neoangiogenesis within the scar tissue. Finally, the transplantation of skeletal muscle cells (SMC) in the infarcted area improved myocardial function, in correlation with the development of skeletal muscle tissue in various animal models. The latter results paved the way for the development of a first phase I clinical trial of SMC transplantation in patients with severe ischemic heart failure. It required the scale-up of human cell production according to Good Manufacturing Procedures, it started in June 2000 in Paris and was terminated in November 2001, and it was followed by several others. The results were encouraging and prompted the onset of a blinded, multicentric phase II clinical trial for SMC transplantation. Meanwhile, clinical trials also evaluate the safety and efficacy of various cells types originating from the bone marrow.
