Regeneration of damaged heart tissue and functional recovery of cardiac muscle were obtained after progenitor cells - isolated from the bone marrow of patients who suffered from a recent acute myocardial infarction (AMI) - were reintroduced in the same donor’s organism. These exciting results were announced at the American Heart Association’s annual scientific meeting last November, and represent the outcome of a very well-designed clinical trial, according to a number of scientists.

Among the Institutions, Foundations and non-profit organizations that participated in the trial - named REPAIR-AMI (Reinfusion of Enriched Progenitor Cells And Infarct Remodelling in Acute Myocardial Infarction) - there was also the EVGN component from the J.W. Goethe University in Frankfurt, with P.I.s Stefanie Dimmeler and Andreas Zeiher as well as the University Hospital in Zürich, with P.I. Tom Lüscher.

More than 200 patients with AMI from 17 German and Swiss Centers were enrolled in this double blind trial, devised in such a way that neither the patients nor the clinicians knew since the very beginning who was receiving the progenitor cells and who a placebo infusion. Progenitor cells are stem-like cells: still immature, but endowed of the potential to specialize into different tissues. The cells used in this clinical setting effectively matured into cardiac elements after reinfusion in previous experimental studies.

"One of the first, extremely encouraging endpoint – underlines Stefanie Dimmeler professor of Experimental Medicine and Head of the Molecular Cardiology at the University of Frankfurt – was a considerable improvement of cardiac pump function: in other words, after 4 months we observed a neat recovery in the performance of the left ventricule (the very heart engine), that could eject a bigger flux of blood".

In addition, patients who received the therapeutic cells – in comparison with the placebo-treated ones – showed a marked positive effect on the remodeling process of the cardiac tissue and an improvement in the growth process of new blood vessels within the infarct area.

"For reasons still unclear - observes senior author of the study Andreas Zeiher, professor at J.W. Goethe University and Director of the Third Medical Clinic of Cardiology - the progenitor cells therapy seemed to have more pronounced beneficial effects in patients with vaster myocardial infarctions. However, all the data collected so far suggest that this therapy is both feasible and safe".

The great advantage of the described approach, in comparison with standard medications that simply prevent further cardiac damage in infarcted patients, resides in the ability to effectively regenerate the cardiac tissue along with its function. This is the first trial that demonstrates in a fully blinded and multicenter design a real potential of the cell therapy in the heart attack treatment.