Cytori study boosts stem cell therapy in heart disease

As part of this study, adipose stem cells or a saline control injection were administered into subjects after a heart attack. At no point during the eight week study period was a difference in irregular heart beats between both groups observed, indicating that cell treated animals do not show an increase in potentially fatal arrhythmias.

On the contrary, at the end of the study period, an electrophysiologic stimulation that artificially induces arrhythmias showed a significant longer cycle length, a measure of the electrical activity controlling heart contractions, in the cell treated group which is indicative of a more organized and stable heart rhythm compared to the control group.

The results of the study, conducted in collaboration with Tulane University, were presented at the German cardiac society annual conference, in Mannheim, Germany.

“In addition to the improved functional benefit consistently observed in preclinical heart attack studies, this data suggest adipose stem and regenerative cells are not associated with increased risk of arrhythmias,” said Dr Marc Hedrick, president of Cytori Therapeutics. “This is an important finding due to the reported incidence of arrhythmias observed in clinical cardiac cell therapies derived from alternate cell sources.”