"Shaking" the heart enhances stem-cell therapy in chronic HF: CELLWAVE

Would this technique help stem cells for our brains? Inquiring minds want to know.
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 In a study of patients with chronic postinfarction heart failure, a procedure that involved pretreating the heart with shock waves before administering autologous bone-marrow-derived mononuclear cells (BMCs) led to modestly improved LVEF at four months [1]. These findings from CELLWAVE, a phase 1/2 randomized clinical trial, are published in the April 17, 2013 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

This technique represents another step forward in the quest for a way to repair damaged heart tissue and warrants further exploration in larger trials, experts say.

"I'm excited, to be honest, that this kind of combined therapy with priming the target tissue clearly offers the potential to induce . . . remodeling of a long-standing, pump-failure-affected heart," senior author Dr Andreas M Zeiher (Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany) told heartwire.

Two experts who were invited to comment on the study concurred.

"I think the trial was extremely well-done, and it's based on sound preclinical and clinical ideas," said Dr Timothy Henry (Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation, MN). "For me, it's another step in data that show that we can expand on or enhance the 'first generation of cell therapy' " with bone-marrow-derived cells.

"The most important innovation here is the use of the mechanical therapy, the shock-wave therapy, to prime the heart to be more receptive to the effect of cell therapy," Dr Eduardo Marban (Cedars Sinai Heart Institute, Los Angeles, CA) said. The modest change in ejection fraction was comparable to that seen with cell therapy in acute MI, he noted.

More at link.