Cellular Cardiomyoplasty Using Skeletal Muscle Stem Cells

Abstract

Skeletal muscle satellite cells (myoblasts) are the primary stem cells of skeletal muscle which contribute to growth, maintenance, and repair of the muscle. Satellite cells offer several advantages for cellular cardiomyoplasty: can be easily obtained without affecting one's function, vastly proliferated in culture, have high resistance to ischemic and hypoxic conditions, no identified risk for tumor generation, and more commitment to myogenic differentiation. Cellular cardiomyoplasty is a developing new therapy that use stem cells or progenitor cells for injured heart to improve cardiac function and mitigate heart failure. Since we first published cellular cardiomyoplasty in 1989, this procedure became one of the innovative methods to treat damaged myocardium other than heart transplantation. A significant improvement in cardiac function, metabolism, and perfusion is generally observed in experimental and clinical studies, but the improvement is mild and incomplete. Although safety, feasibility, and efficacy have been well documented for the procedure, the beneficial mechanisms remain unclear and optimization of the procedure requires further study. This paper briefly reviews the skeletal muscle stem cells used for cellular cardiomyoplasty and their clinical outcomes with possible improvements in future studies.