A Creighton University School of Medicine researcher has received a $3.3 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to study what role adult stem cells might play in repairing damaged coronary arteries, a complication that often occurs in patients after they undergo angioplasty and stenting.
"Restenosis, a re-narrowing of coronary arteries in the heart, after balloon angioplasty and the placement of stents, is a serious problem. Drug-eluting stents can help reduce the occurrence of restenosis. However, there is a serious tradeoff.
Drug-eluting stents can lead to thrombosis (platelet deposits in the endothelial lining around the blood vessels that destroy the lining), which then requires longer periods of anti-platelet therapy. This therapy, in turn, can produce serious side effects, including nosebleed, upset stomach, nausea and diarrhea," said Devendra Agrawal, Ph.D., principal investigator and a professor of biomedical sciences, internal medicine and medical microbiology and immunology.
For the study, Agrawal and his co-investigators, Creighton cardiologist Michael Del Core and pathologist William Hunter will deliver adult stem cells (autologous mesenchymal stem cells), together with a novel gene, at the site of an interventional procedure in the coronary arteries of a pig model.
The goal is to determine whether the administration of adult stem cells, along with the gene therapy, is superior to using drug-eluting stents following angioplasty, said Agrawal, holder of The Peekie Nash Carpenter Endowed Chair in Medicine. If successful, he added, the treatment could even eliminate the need for stents.