The effect of stem cells in congenital heart disease

Abstract

Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) affects 1 in 100 babies born each year in the United States and is the most prevalent congenital anomaly. Birth prevalence of CHD worldwide varies but the estimate is 8 per 1,000 live births. This is because of the differences in income and access to health care being limited in some parts of the world. Within the first year of life, those with CHD require cardiac intervention quickly. With that in mind, this disease lays a huge burden on the lives of the newborn and their family by putting an enormous emotional and financial strain on them at a vulnerable time. Many CHD patients need open-heart surgery, which is where the chest is cut open and surgery is performed on the heart while the patient is put on cardiopulmonary bypass. Even though this procedure has significantly progressed over the years, it is a heavily invasive surgery that comes with many risks and complications including infection, bleeding, inadequate perfusion of organs or tissues. Since cardiac surgery is the most common reason for admission to pediatric intensive care, there are a large amount of people that experience this burden and these risks. Because of this variability to current treatment options, newer treatments are constantly being developed and tested in clinical trials. However, invasive surgeries remain the first line treatment because of the surgical advancement over the years.Traditional heart surgery can now be performed with small incisions or minimally invasive heart surgery as an alternative. Therefore, stem cell therapy is beginning to be researched and investigated for the repair of the injured heart in these diseases. Research of stem cell therapy in adults with heart disease has been investigated and has paved way for treating the pediatric population with congenital heart disease. The promising potential of stem cell therapy will provide patients with a different, non-invasive treatment option. The effects of stem cell therapy will promote cardiac repair and recovery. It is the intent of this review to provide an update concerning the existing published evidence of research as well as the need for further investigation of the use of stem cells to treat congenital heart disease.

Charting the Path: Navigating Embryonic Development to Potentially Safeguard against Congenital Heart Defects

“…To date, numerous preclinical and clinical studies have been performed to treat CHDs using embryonic stem cells (ESCs), induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), and adult stem cells, such as cardiac progenitor cells and mesenchymal stem cells [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. Although the outcomes of these trials remain largely unsatisfactory, the usage of autologous and allogenic stem cells to complement surgical interventions in infants with CHDs have recently shown positive results, particularly in patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) [ 3 , 13 , 18 , 19 , 20 ]. To further reduce surgical interventions in patients, the tissue engineering research field is actively developing cell-seeded clinical patches that are able to either grow in synchronization with the cardiovascular structures or to be gradually replaced by the newly formed tissues of treated infants [ 3 ].…”