|
|
| SPEAKER |
| Prof. Philippe Menasché |
| Professor of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery |
|
University of Paris Descartes
|
|
|
MEETING
|
|
June 2009 |
|
| BIOGRAPHY |
Professor Menasché obtained his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Paris. In addition to his post at the University of Paris Descartes, he is Chief of the Cardiac Surgery Unit of the Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou and Director of an INSERM (National Institute of Health and Medical Research) laboratory devoted to cell therapy of cardiovascular diseases. He started to work in this area 15 years ago and performed in 2000 the first human intramyocardial transplantation of autologous skeletal myoblasts in a patient with severe heart failure. He was then the principal investigator (PI) of a randomised controlled trial of myoblast transplantation designed to assess the safety and efficacy of the technique. Suboptimal results led the group to refocus on the use of cardiac progenitors derived from human embryonic stem cells in close collaboration with the team of Michel Pucéat. The laboratory is conducting studies on myocardial regeneration by human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiac progenitors and optimising cell delivery techniques with the objective of treating patients with end-stage heart failure who have exhausted conventional therapies.
|
| TALK |
|
Ian Rosenberg Memorial Lecture - Cell-Based Therapy for Cardiac Repair
|
| DESCRIPTION |
|
Cell therapy trials for acute myocardial infarction, refractory angina or chronic heart failure have used bone marrow-derived cells and skeletal myoblasts. Overall, the results have failed to show spectacular improvements in patient outcomes although some hints of efficacy support the proof of concept. There are three possible reasons for these mixed results. The first is the heterogeneity of cell functionality which could translate into variable clinical outcomes. The second reason is the low rate of sustained engraftment which justifies the development of improved delivery devices. The third possible explanation is the selection of end points wrongly assuming some stem cell-derived regeneration. Indeed, it becomes increasingly apparent that a true regeneration of myocardial tissue can only be accomplished by cells that recapitulate a cardiomyogenic developmental program and, among them, progenitors derived from human embryonic stem cells currently look the most promising. In summary, once these issues have been appropriately addressed, this cell-based approach could offer treatments for cardiac diseases.
|
|
