Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 7, 2026
Isolation of Perivascular Multipotent Precursor Cell Populations from Human Cardiac Tissue
Published on: October 8, 2016
Potency of Human Cardiosphere-Derived Cells from Patients with Ischemic Heart Disease Is Associated with Robust
Emma Harvey1, Huajun Zhang2,3, Pilar Sepúlveda4
1Radcliffe Department of Medicine.
Insights
Cardiosphere-derived cells (CDCs) show reparative effects in heart damage, but their efficacy varies. Assessing CDC vascular support function can improve patient selection for cell therapy, enhancing outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Regenerative Medicine
- Cardiovascular Research
- Cell Therapy
Background:
- Cardiosphere-derived cells (CDCs) show potential for myocardial repair.
- The therapeutic efficacy of CDCs can be influenced by patient-specific factors.
- Variability in CDC ability to support vessel formation exists among patients.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if the vascular supportive function of CDCs impacts their therapeutic potential.
- To establish methods for improving patient stratification in CDC therapy.
- To identify patient subgroups whose CDCs are less effective for autologous transplantation.
Main Methods:
- Isolation and characterization of CDCs from patients with ischemic heart disease.
- In vitro assessment of CDC vascular supportive function (angiogenesis).
- Evaluation of CDC reparative effects in a rodent model of myocardial infarction.
Main Results:
- A subset of patients yielded CDCs with poor vascular support function, reduced proliferation, and increased senescence.
- Poor supporter CDCs demonstrated limited therapeutic benefit in a myocardial infarction model compared to effective supporter CDCs.
- CDC immunophenotype was similar between good and poor supporters, indicating functional differences beyond surface markers.
Conclusions:
- Not all patients provide CDCs suitable for effective autologous cell therapy.
- Assessing CDC vascular support function is a viable strategy for patient stratification.
- This approach can guide decisions for allogeneic transplantation or regenerative preconditioning, optimizing precision medicine for heart repair.
Abstract:
Cardiosphere-derived cell (CDC) infusion into damaged myocardium has shown some reparative effect; this could be improved by better selection of patients and cell subtype. CDCs isolated from patients with ischemic heart disease are able to support vessel formation in vitro but this ability varies between patients. The primary aim of our study was to investigate whether the vascular supportive function of CDCs impacts on their therapeutic potential, with the goal of improving patient stratification. A subgroup of patients produced CDCs which did not efficiently support vessel formation (poor supporter CDCs), had reduced levels of proliferation and increased senescence, despite them being isolated in the same manner and having a similar immunophenotype to CDCs able to support vessel formation. In a rodent model of myocardial infarction, poor supporter CDCs had a limited reparative effect when compared to CDCs which had efficiently supported vessel formation in vitro. This work suggests that not all patients provide cells which are suitable for cell therapy. Assessing the vascular supportive function of cells could be used to stratify which patients will truly benefit from cell therapy and those who would be better suited to an allogeneic transplant or regenerative preconditioning of their cells in a precision medicine fashion. This could reduce costs, culture times and improve clinical outcomes and patient prognosis. Stem Cells Translational Medicine 2017;6:1399-1411.
