Strategies to Improve Cardiac Cell Therapy

A myocardial infarction (MI) occurs when a part of the heart does not receive enough blood. During this process part of the myocardium will die and scar will form. Since cardiomyocytes rarely divide, the organ cannot repair itself and the pumping force of the heart decreases. At the moment no therapeutic avenue exists to cure this disorder, and for many patients who suffer from a MI the condition can deteriorate into heart failure. Therefore, there is a need to create new medicine with the ability to restore the heart muscle and tissue. Stem cells have appeared as a candidate for the job. They are able to replenish the damaged organ, because they can become new cell types, such as heart muscle and vessels cells which were lost after the MI. Many trials have been started with stem cells with both negative and positive results. The intent of this thesis was to undertake some of the underlying issues of conventional cardiac cell therapy approaches, especially in regard to the use of cardiomyocyte progenitor cells. We explored various techniques that try to tackle some of the observed pitfalls; from finding the most optimal progenitor cell population, to protecting the cells from pro-apoptotic signaling in the ischemic myocardium and avoiding cell leakage after administration. Overall, we created a platform which future cellular therapies for the heart could utilize to generate a more robust and efficiency regenerative therapeutic.