New treatment strategy for severe heart failure: combination of ventricular assist device and regenerative therapy

Heart transplantation and ventricular assist device for the patients with end-stage heart failure are limited by availability and durability due to limited donor or device-related complication. Thus, complementation or a new alternative is needed for the treatment of severe heart failure. Based on the results of basic experiments, we applied skeletal myoblast cell sheet transplantation in a clinical setting using cell-sheet methods with temperature-responsive dish for the treatment of heart failure patient from 2007. After confirming the safety of this treatment, we started a clinical trial of myoblast cell sheet transplantation as sole therapy. According to these results, in 2015, myoblast cell sheet transplantation with ischemic cardiomyopathy was approved by the Japanese government and now this treatment was covered by Japanese health insurance. Here we report our approach and future perspective of cardiac regenerative therapy using this new treatment method for severe heart failure including new strategy incorporating regenerative therapy in the conventional treatment of heart failure including VAD and heart transplantation.