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Stem cell therapy benefited patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy regardless of age
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Patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy derived benefit from human mesenchymal stem cell therapy even if they were older than 60 years, according to recent study findings.
Researchers investigated whether the therapeutic effect of culture-expanded mesenchymal stem cells persisted at 1 year in patients younger than 60 years and older than 60 years.
The analysis included patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy who had received mesenchymal stem cells via transendocranial stem cell injection as part of the TAC-HFT (n=19) and POSEIDON (n=30) trials. The researchers assessed functional capacity via 6-minute walk distance and quality of life using the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire score at baseline, 6 months and 1 year. They also measured cardiac imaging parameters including absolute scar size at baseline and 1 year.
At 1 year, mean 6-minute walk distance increased 48.5 m in the younger group (P=.001) and 35.9 m in the older group (P=.038). Results indicated no significant difference between the age groups across time.
Also at 1 year, the older group demonstrated a significant improvement in Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire score (–7.04; P=.022), the younger group demonstrated a borderline improvement in the score (–11.22; P=.058), and there was no significant difference between the age groups across time.
Both age groups exhibited significantly decreased absolute scar size at 1 year (P<.0001 for both), and the percentage of change with time did not differ between the groups, according to the researchers.
Both groups at 1 year had a lower proportion of scar size as a percentage of left ventricular mass (younger group, P=.0013; older group, P<.0001), and there was no difference between the groups when comparing percentage of change from baseline to 1 year.
“Therapeutic responses to culture-expanded [mesenchymal stem cells] are not impaired in subjects of older age,” Samuel Golpanian, MD, from the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and colleagues wrote. “This is particularly important to the emerging field of cell therapy for chronic [HF] due to [ischemic cardiomyopathy], a disorder that increases dramatically in incidence with age. These data support ongoing clinical trials on cell-based therapy and the need for future clinical investigation of [mesenchymal stem cell] use in individuals of older age groups.”
Disclosure: The study was funded in part by grants from the NIH. One researcher reports being supported by grants from the NIH and the Starr Foundation, having equity in and being a board member of Vestion and consulting for Kardia. Another researcher reports being funded by the American Heart Association.
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