Cardiac stem cell therapy. Registered trials and a pilot study in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy.

In cardiac stem cell therapy, the past decade has been interesting with respect to preclinical and clinical research. The high diversity of applied stem cell populations and evaluation methods represent a challenge to fully understand the impact of stem cell administration, leaving uncertain answers to the questions that have been dealt with thus far. In the present work, registered studies in cardiac stem cell therapy are summarized and the study aims are highlighted. Furthermore, preliminary data on the additional intramyocardial administration of CD133+ stem cells in patients undergoing mitral valve surgery are presented.