Cell therapy may provide a novel therapeutic option for cardiac patients, modifying myocardium remodeling processes and preventing post-infarction heart failure. Currently clinical studies predominantly use bone marrow mononuclear cells isolated by density gradient centrifugation of iliac crest bone marrow aspirates. Although this revolutionary new strategy seems to be safe and to improve myocardial function, negative data have emerged challenging the future of cell-based therapy for heart repair. Here we discuss some laboratory data that might explain, at least in part, variations in outcomes using similar protocols. Analysis of the correlation between the cell composition of the mononuclear fraction of bone marrow aspirates and the clinical outcome of the therapy has indicated that cells of the lymphocyte lineage are not beneficial in myocardial regeneration. A proposal of selection to eliminate these cells may improve cell therapy of infarcted myocardium.
Stem cell; bone marrow; heart; myocardium; cell therapy
