“…Interestingly, even though results from animal studies and early clinical studies using angiogenic/arteriogenic proteins or genes have been very encouraging, larger randomized trials have not yet conclusively demonstrated clinical benefits. 7 As an alternative approach to augmenting blood vessel growth, cell therapies using either bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells or progenitor cells/stem cells have been developed, and, so far, early clinical studies and animal studies have also been positive. 7 However, larger randomized placebo-controlled trials are still lacking, and a recent metaanalysis of the smaller clinical trials with bone marrow-derived cells pointed out that the overall clinical improvements may be more modest than previously assumed.…”