Cardiac stem cell therapy towards the clinic: The way forward re-starts from within

Abstract

In this issue of the IJC, Sean Coffey et al. examined in a double blinded randomized controlled trial whether thiamine treatment improves cardiac stem cell/progenitor (generally abbreviated as CSCs or CPCs) function in humans. They show that using this drug it may be possible to modulate endogenous human CSC differentiation potential in a real-life clinical setting [ [1] Coffey S. Dixit P. Saw E.L. Babakr A.A. van Hout I. Galvin I.F. et al. Thiamine increases resident endoglin positive cardiac progenitor cells and atrial contractile force in humans: a randomised controlled trial. Int. J. Cardiol. 2021; 341: 70-73https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2021.08.039 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (1) Google Scholar ]. Thiamine increases resident endoglin positive cardiac progenitor cells and atrial contractile force in humans: A randomised controlled trialInternational Journal of CardiologyVol. 341PreviewThe heart has an intrinsic ability to regenerate, orchestrated by progenitor or stem cells. However, the relative complexity of non-resident cardiac progenitor cell (CPC) therapy makes modulation of resident CPCs a more attractive treatment target. Thiamine analogues improve resident CPC function in pre-clinical models. In this double blinded randomised controlled trial (identifier: ACTRN12614000755639), we examined whether thiamine would improve CPC function in humans. Full-Text PDF