Cardiac restoration: frontier or fantasy?

Heart failure is reaching epidemic proportions in Canada. The current medical and surgical therapies are inadequate to restore cardiac function. Increasingly, cell therapy has been investigated as a novel approach to regenerate the heart and to restore function. Animal studies have been promising and clinical trials are proceeding. Early results suggest that cell therapy may be efficacious in humans as well, but adverse events have been noted. Although the optimal cell type, mode of delivery and ideal patient population have not been identified, the bulk of the evidence suggests that both cardiologists and cardiac surgeons will use cellular therapy to treat heart failure in the future.