Vaskulárna medicína 3/2011

Cell therapy in patients with critical limb ischemia

Transplantation of stem cells in patients with critical limb ischemia is the experimental therapeutic modality. The results of preclinical and small clinical studies demonstrated safety and efficacy of stem cell therapy in therapeutical angiogenesis. The main reported parameters of clinical benefit are mainly limb salvage, improvement of wound healing, the pain reduction, or transcutaneous oxygen pressure (tcpO2), and the ankle-brachial index, as parameters of limb perfusion. A lot of unresolved questions are the topic of the ongoing intensive worldwide research, mainly the dominant mechanism of therapeutical angiogenesis, but also the optimal cells type, source and dosage of cells, the isolation method, the application route, or the role of growth factors and cytokines in neoangiogenesis.

Keywords: stem cells, critical limb ischemia, atherosclerosis, angiogenesis