Current Stem Cell Research & Therapy - Volume 8, Issue 4, 2013

The pandemic of cardiovascular disease is continuously expanding as the result of changing life styles and diets throughout the Old and New World. Immediate intervention therapy saves the lives of many patients after acute myocardial infarction (MI). However, for many this comes at the price of adverse cardiac remodeling and heart failure. Currently, no conventional therapy can prevent the negative aftermath of MI and alter Read More

Modern life styles have made cardiovascular disease the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Although current treatments substantially ameliorate patients’ prognosis after MI, they cannot restore the affected tissue or entirely re-establish organ function. Therefore, the main goal of modern cardiology should be to design strategies to reduce myocardial necrosis and optimize cardiac repair following MI. C Read More

Numerous studies have previously shown the efficiency of stem cell therapy in recovering the infarcted myocardium, by reducing the infarct size and improving the overall global function. However, the functional improvements observed in almost all cases were short-termed and many clinical trials showed that there were no long term relevant differences between infarcted myocardium with and without cell transplant. Moreov Read More

The stem cell-based therapy for post-infarction myocardial regeneration has been introduced more than a decade ago, but the functional improvement obtained is limited due to the poor retention and short survival rate of transplanted cells into the damaged myocardium. More recently, the emerging nanotechnology concepts for advanced diagnostics and therapy provide promising opportunities of using stem c Read More

Although the treatment of acute myocardial infarction has improved considerably and the mortality rate is reduced, patients who survive may develop loss of cardiomyocytes, scar formation, ventricular remodeling, and ultimately heart failure. The treatment of the most severe types of heart failure is heart transplantation, but this therapeutic intervention is not available for a large number of patients due to a shortage o Read More

Stem cells have the ability to self-renew and to differentiate into multiple mature cell types during early life and growth. Stem cells adhesion, proliferation, migration and differentiation are affected by biochemical, mechanical and physical surface properties of the surrounding matrix in which stem cells reside and stem cells can sensitively feel and respond to the microenvironment of this matrix. More and more research Read More

Graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) remains the major barrier to successful allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) is a potent immunomodulatory treatment option for GvHD. In contrast to conventional immunosuppressants, ECP is considered not to increase relapse and infection rates resulting from generalised immunosuppression. ECP involves the mechanic Read More

Recent clinical studies have demonstrated the capacity of immunosuppressive therapy to delay progression of inflammatory insulitis in type 1 diabetes (T1D). The procedure includes depletion of pathogenic cells by immunosuppressive therapy and support of recovery by reinfusion of autologous hematopoietic progenitors. The short-term outcome of these clinical transplants is similar to the predictions drawn from NO Read More