Activation of the Immune System Underlies Cardiac Cell Therapies

A study in mice reveals that stem cell transplants, currently in clinical trials, may not actually require the cells.

Written byRuth Williams

| 4 min read

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ABOVE: In a mouse heart, injected stem cells (dashed lines showing injection site) recruit inflammatory (red) and non-inflammatory, healing (green) macrophages to elicit wound repair.
JEFFERY MOLKENTIN

Injections of stem cells—either a patient’s own or from a donor—into the hearts of people with cardiac conditions has been shown in some cases to improve heart function. How the cells help has been a mystery. A paper in Nature today (November 27) shows that activation of an innate immune response can explain, and even recapitulate, the beneficial effects of stem cell transplants in the hearts of mice.

The findings suggest stem cells may not be required to boost cardiac repair, but some researchers argue that, by finally providing a mechanistic explanation, the study supports the use of cell therapy.

“This work is paradigm-shifting because it demonstrates a mechanism to explain a perplexing phenomenon that has intrigued cardiologists as a result of decades of ...

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Meet the Author

Ruth Williams
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Ruth is a freelance journalist. Before freelancing, Ruth was a news editor for the Journal of Cell Biology in New York and an assistant editor for Nature Reviews Neuroscience in London. Prior to that, she was a bona fide pipette-wielding, test tube–shaking, lab coat–shirking research scientist. She has a PhD in genetics from King’s College London, and was a postdoc in stem cell biology at Imperial College London. Today she lives and writes in Connecticut.
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