Advances in cell transplantation therapy for diseased myocardium.

The overall objective of cell transplantation is to repopulate postinfarction scar with contractile cells, thus improving systolic function, and to prevent or to regress the remodeling process. Direct implantation of isolated myoblasts, cardiomyocytes, and bone-marrow-derived cells has shown prospect for improved cardiac performance in several animal models and patients suffering from heart failure. However, direct implantation of cultured cells can lead to major cell loss by leakage and cell death, inappropriate integration and proliferation, and cardiac arrhythmia.

Spontaneous recovery of myocardial function after ligation of Ameroid-stenosed coronary artery.

Objectives: We aimed to assess the spontaneous healing of myocardial function after occlusion of a chronically stenosed coronary vessel in a porcine model.

Design: Ischemia and infarction was produced by Ameroid constrictor placement and a subsequent ligation of the left circumflex artery. Cardiac MRI and 18FDG-PET were performed one and five weeks later.

Improved diastolic function after myoblast transplantation in a model of ischemia-infarction.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of myoblast transplantation on left ventricular function, perfusion, and scar formation after compromised coronary flow.

Design: A coronary vessel with Ameroid-induced stenosis was ligated and skeletal muscle was biopsied for isolation and cultivation of myoblasts. Two weeks after ligation, animals were randomly selected to receive intramyocardial injections of 2 x 10(6) myoblasts or vehicle.

Treatment of Pancreatic Fistulas.

Pancreatic fistula is usually a complication of acute and chronic pancreatitis but can also occur postoperatively or after abdominal trauma. Conservative treatment of pancreatic fistula is time-consuming and often fails. Endoscopic treatment has become the preferred first-line treatment in many centres.