The characterization of cardiac stem cells obtained from patients who have received left ventriculoplasty.

The recent clinical application of c-kit-positive resident cardiac stem cells (CSCs) for severe heart failure patients revealed their remarkable and long lasting beneficial effects. Ultimately aiming at a combined therapy of left ventriculoplasty and autologous CSC transplantation, we have successfully isolated and cultivated endogenous stem cells from the right atrium and the infarcted left ventricle, respectively, of all subjects in the target population. Three independent parameters, population doubling time, BrdU incorporation, and colony forming ability, each of which indicates the growth property of cultured CSCs, correlated well in every sample. Overall, CSCs derived from both origins possessed a great proliferative potential with a non-significant superiority in the right atrial CSCs. This brief report provides a fundamental basis for regenerative therapy as a potential novel management of ischemic cardiomyopathy, following the ventriculoplasty.