Houston-based Texas Heart Institute researchers potentially have found a new way to use cell therapy to treat chronic heart failure.
The study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, followed 565 patients with chronic heart failure due to low ejection fraction across 51 centers. Half the patients received a special immunomodulatory cell-type called mesenchymal precursor cells. The treatment improved the heart's pumping ability and reduced the risk of heart attack or stroke, especially in patients with high levels of inflammation, researchers said.
This is also the first time MPCs have been used to treat inflammation in heart failure, according to a Feb. 27 Texas Heart Institute news release. Cell therapy could be a synergistic and additive treatment to heart failure medications.