Defining the biology of human cardiac stem/progenitor cells for their use as an allogeneic cell therapeutic agent for myocardial repair & regeneration

当一个人心脏病发作时，他们的一些心脏细胞死亡，心脏无法自我修复和替换失去的细胞；最终心脏将衰竭。我们和其他人已经确认成人心脏拥有干细胞，称为心脏干细胞，我的实验室已经证明，这些干细胞具有在受损后再生丢失的心脏组织的独特潜力。我的研究目标是设计最好、最具成本效益和易于应用的方案和干预措施，通过再生和修复丢失的心脏组织来治疗患者。我们已经发现了心脏干细胞分泌的物质，这些物质可以刺激它们的生长和生成新心脏组织的能力。我们还发现，如果通过循环注射，来自心脏的干细胞具有返回受损心脏的独特能力。该项目的目的是定义人类心肌来源的心脏干细胞的生物学。我们将测试它们在大量培养细胞中繁殖时的稳定性。我们将确定它们在通过循环注射时返回受损心脏的能力，我们将确定人类心脏干细胞到达心脏时分泌的物质。最后，我们将确定人类心脏干细胞是否能够刺激受损心脏的修复和再生，从而改善心脏功能。据设想，该项目的结果将导致人类第一次临床试验，将人类心脏干细胞注射到心脏病发作的患者体内，试图修复和再生心脏细胞并改善结果。

When someone suffers a heart attack some of their heart cells die and the heart is unable to heal itself and replace the cells that are lost; eventually the heart will fail. We and others have identified that the adult heart possesses stem cells, called cardiac stem cells, and my laboratory has shown that these stem cells have the unique potential to regenerate lost heart tissue following damage. The goal of my research is to design the best, most cost-effective and easy-to-apply protocols and interventions for treating patients by regenerating and repairing the heart tissue that has been lost. We have discovered substances secreted by the cardiac stem cells that stimulate their growth and ability to make new heart tissue. We have also discovered that stem cells derived from the heart have a unique ability to return to the damaged heart, if injected through the circulation. The aim of this project is to define the biology of cardiac stem cells derived from human myocardium. We will test their stability when propagated to large numbers of cells in culture. We will determine their ability to return to the damaged heart when injected through the circulation and we will determine the substances that the human cardiac stem cells secrete when they reach the heart. Finally, we will determine whether the human cardiac stem cells can stimulate repair and regeneration of the damaged heart, leading to improved heart function. It is envisioned that the results from this project will lead to the first in man clinical trial where human cardiac stem cells are injected into patients who have suffered a heart attack in an attempt to repair and regenerate heart cells and improve outcome.