Placental stem cells could treat heart failure

An international research team has found that stem cells collected from the placenta, which is generally discarded after childbirth, show promise as a treatment for heart failure. A study in mice found that human placenta-derived adherent cells (PDACs) significantly improved cardiac function when injected into the heart muscle.

Heart failure - where the heart’s pumping power is weaker than normal - is the world’s leading cause of death. Early studies using autologous bone marrow transplantation (stem cells collected from the patient’s bone marrow) helped improve cardiac function after myocardial infarction (MI), but more recent studies have shown no benefit in the early stages after MI. This has led researchers to question whether mesenchymal stem cells from sources other than bone marrow, such as cord blood and placenta tissue, might yield better results.

In the new study, published in the journal STEM CELLS Translational Medicine, researchers tested the therapeutic effects of PDA-001 (an intravenous formulation of PDACs) in mice, as well as the best way to deliver the therapy. The study was co-led by Patrick CH Hsieh of Taiwan’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica; and Uri Herzberg of Celgene Cellular Therapeutics, USA.

“Three weeks after chronic heart failure was induced in the animals, they were treated with the stem cells by either direct intramyocardial (IM) or intravenous (IV) injection,” Dr Hsieh said. “The results showed that the IM injections significantly improved the left ventricle systolic and diastolic functions compared with injection of vehicle or IV injection of PDA-001.”

“The IM injections also decreased cardiac fibrosis in the vicinity of the injection sites,” Dr Herzberg added. “We repeatedly observed improvement of cardiac function in the injected sites following IM PDA-001 treatment. Based on these results, we want to continue our investigations to optimise the effect through controlling the dose, timing and delivery.”