Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Dec 26, 2017; 9(12): 203-218
Published online Dec 26, 2017. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v9.i12.203
Pursuing meaningful end-points for stem cell therapy assessment in ischemic cardiac disease
Maria Dorobantu, Nicoleta-Monica Popa-Fotea, Mihaela Popa, Iulia Rusu, Miruna Mihaela Micheu
Maria Dorobantu, Nicoleta-Monica Popa-Fotea, Miruna Mihaela Micheu, Department of Cardiology, Clinical Emergency Hospital of Bucharest, Bucharest 014461, Romania
Mihaela Popa, Iulia Rusu, Carol Davila, University of Medicine, "Carol Davila" University of Medicine and Pharmacy Bucharest, Bucharest 020022, Romania
Author contributions: Popa-Fotea NM, Popa M and Rusu I contributed to this paper with literature review, analysis and drafting the paper; Dorobantu M and Micheu MM equally contributed to conception and design of the study, literature analysis, critical revision, editing and final approval of the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interests for this article. No financial support.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Miruna Mihaela Micheu, MD, PhD, Department of Cardiology, Clinical Emergency Hospital of Bucharest, Floreasca Street 8, Bucharest 014461, Romania. cardio@urgentafloreasca.ro
Telephone: +40-72-2451755
Received: August 10, 2017
Peer-review started: August 26, 2017
First decision: October 23, 2017
Revised: November 8, 2017
Accepted: November 27, 2017
Article in press: November 27, 2017
Published online: December 26, 2017
Core Tip

Core tip: Although multiple studies have been published on stem cell therapy (SCT) in ischemic cardiac disease, no universal conclusion regarding its clinical efficacy has been given in part due to the lack of appropriate end-points. A rightful appreciation of SCT impact should be made considering multiple parameters from diverse categories, either objective - evaluating structural and biological functions, or subjective - patient orientated impacting daily quality of life. Current end-points, but also novel parameters investigating molecular pathways and new imaging methods with labelled cells genetically modified are being analytically discussed in this review, disclosing high heterogeneity in SCT efficacy assessment.