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(Circulation Research. 2006;98:e48.)
© 2006 American Heart Association, Inc.

Letter to the Editor

Intracoronary Administration of Circulating Blood-Derived Progenitor Cells After Recanalization of Chronic Coronary Artery Occlusion Improves Endothelial Function

Sandra Erbs, Axel Linke, Gerhard Schuler, Rainer Hambrecht

University of Leipzig, Heart Center, Department of Internal Medicine/Cardiology, Leipzig, Germany

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

To the Editor:

We read with interest the letter by Dr Traverse.¹ He pointed out that the beneficial effects of the therapy with circulating progenitor cells (CPC) rely on the increase in left ventricular (LV) function in CPC-treated patients as compared with a control group where LV performance did not change during the study period of 3 months.

However, we would like to use this opportunity to address a couple of questions that have been raised by Dr Traverse:

First, our study was the first randomized placebo-controlled trial ever that was designed to address the effects of an intracoronary CPC application on endothelial dysfunction after recanalization of chronic total occlusion (CTO).² The primary end point of our study was coronary flow reserve in the reopened artery, which was found to be increased by 43% in patients of the CPC group. This was linked to an improvement in metabolism, an increase in local and global left ventricular function. In contrast, even though CTO was successfully recanalized, which results in a restoration of the antegrad flow that is clearly higher than the collateral flow, endothelial dysfunction persisted in the control group; the number of hibernating segments as well as the myocardial performance did not change significantly in these patients. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that the degree of endothelial dysfunction after recanalization of CTO is a main determinant of myocardial metabolism and LV function.²

Second, there is evidence that the suggestive observational data reported in the studies, which were cited . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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