BACE1 levels are elevated in congestive heart failure.

Cardiovascular (CV) diseases are known to have a negative impact on the brain and neurocognition, and contribute to the development of vascular dementia and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). Among CV diseases, congestive heart failure (CHF) after myocardial infarction (MI) is a condition where the ability of the left ventricle to eject blood to the circulation is impaired. As a consequence, CHF triggers inflammation and results in reduced cerebral blood flow which are considered among the risk factors for development of AD.

Transplantation of cardiac progenitor cell sheet onto infarcted heart promotes cardiogenesis and improves function.

Aims: Cell-based therapy for myocardial infarction (MI) holds great promise; however, the ideal cell type and delivery system have not been established. Obstacles in the field are the massive cell death after direct injection and the small percentage of surviving cells differentiating into cardiomyocytes. To overcome these challenges we designed a novel study to deliver cardiac progenitor cells as a cell sheet.