Function-based Enrichment of Pro-angiogenic Cells for Cardiac Repair

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Heart disease is the most common course for death and illness across Europe. Standard therapy can rescue and preserve heart function only to a certain degree, still leaving the patient with a poor quality of life. Initial studies have tested the potential of injecting the patient s own bone marrow stem cells into the damaged heart muscle. We therefore know that the treatment is safe and can improve heart function more than classical therapy alone. However, researchers believe that the cells which are injected should be characterised and selected better to make sure they perform their supposed function.In the proposed study, we want to select for cells which are able to actively travel towards a substance involved in attraction of regenerative stem cells. We have demonstrated before that this method can be used to isolate cells which have certain characteristics necessary for their beneficial action. However, the better function of the selected cells needs to be demonstrated in a mouse model mirroring the situation of the human patient. Once we have shown that cells selected on the basis of their functional ability perform better than currently used cells, we will be in the position to develop a clinically applicable method improving the efficiency of stem cell therapy.