Biological Properties of the Stem Cells and their Effect on Restoring Animal Myocardium after Experimental Ischemic Infarction

Scientific Study from the year 2021 in the subject Veterinary medicine, , language: English, abstract: The research mainly focuses on the culture of myocardium-derived stem cells as an alternative source of the cell materials for treating patients with heart disease.

Myocardial ischemia is a heart dysfunction caused by insufficient blood supply to its muscle tissue. This supply decrease can be related to the narrowing of coronary arteries, coronary thrombosis, or diffusive narrowing of arterioles and other small-sized vessels of the heart. Stopping the blood supply to the myocardium may lead to cardiac muscle necrosis (myocardial infarction).

Coronary arteries perfuse the heart and help transport the nutrients and Oxygen to metabolically active myocardium. Nowadays, myocardial ischemia, which is associated with atherosclerosis and coronary arteries obstruction, is the leading cause of death for both men and women, and according to the predictions it will remain so until 2030. Myocardial ischemia and myocardial infarction, which is associated with coronary arteries diseases, can also happen to small animals like cats and dogs, which may lead to a sudden death or death while under anesthesia.
Because the heart of adult mammals has extremely limited regeneration ability and the lost cells are replaced with fibrous scars, there is a need for search for treatment methods that are aimed at restoring the structure of cardiac muscle after the ischemia.

Cell technologies are a promising treatment method for animals with myocardial infarction that restores its structure and contractile function. In the past 50 years there have been a significant number of experimental researches that deal with the cell technologies issues. As a result of the research, we understand that stem cells and their derivatives may lay foundation for developing the innovative cell technologies, at any stage of histogenesis. The spectrum of clinical issues that this kind of treatment methods is expected to help with is astounding.

However, the introduction of cell technologies to the clinical practice requires a thorough guide for protocols on how to obtain the stem cells, cell culture and usage, deep study of recipient organism and the transplanted cells interaction, close control of phenotypic and genetic changes in order to provide high quality and safety of the used cell materials in restorative clinical therapy of post myocardial infarction changes in the myocardium.