Cell-based therapies after myocardial injury.

Recent translational research into the emerging field of cardiac cell therapy has paved the way for novel clinical treatment strategies. However, neither the ideal source and type of cell nor the critical quantity and mode of application have yet been defined. In patients who have undergone acute myocardial infarction, several cell-based approaches are currently being evaluated, such as intracoronary delivery of autologous mononuclear bone marrow cells or enriched hematopoietic progenitor cell products; systemic cytokine stimulation with release of bone marrow progenitor cells into the systemic circulation; and both intravenous and intracoronary delivery of allogenic marrow stroma cell-derived cells. There are potentially encouraging data for each of these strategies, based to date on small cohorts with conflicting or equivocal recovery of function. Taken together, it is too early to consider cell therapy for heart disease to be effective. Future setbacks are likely, but both clinicians and basic scientists will eventually introduce more potent cell-based strategies into the clinical arena.