HyStem-C effective in transplantation of heart muscle-derived cells for heart disease

BioTime, Inc. (NYSE MKT: BTX) announced today the publication of a scientific paper demonstrating the effectiveness of HyStem^®-C in the transplantation of heart muscle-derived cells in an animal model of heart disease. The paper, "Functional performance of human cardiosphere-derived cells delivered in an in situ polymerizable hyaluronan-gelatin hydrogel," is published online (ahead of print) in the peer-reviewed journal Biomaterials. The report demonstrates that the survival of human heart-derived cells is markedly improved when the cells are formulated in HyStem^®-C, a product being developed by BioTime under the trade name Renevia^TM as a cell delivery device.

“Functional performance of human cardiosphere-derived cells delivered in an in situ polymerizable hyaluronan-gelatin hydrogel”

In today's publication, human heart-derived cells were transplanted into the hearts of mice around the time of injury in an animal heart attack model. When transplanted without matrix, the heart cells fared poorly, as is commonly observed in the absence of such support. However, when the cells were transplanted with HyStem^®-C there was a significant increase in the number of surviving transplanted cells.

Another significant finding reported in the study is that transplantation of the cells with HyStem^®-C into the injured heart muscle resulted in an increase in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), a measure of the ability of the cells to restore strength to the damaged heart wall.

The lead author on the paper is Ke Cheng of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, California. Other authors from Cedars-Sinai are Deliang Shen, Baiming Sun, Giselle Galang, and Eduardo Marbán. Authors from Capricor, Inc. of Los Angeles, California are Agnieszka Blusztajn, Rachel R. Smith, and Linda Marbán. Additional authors are Tao-Sheng Li from the Department of Stem Cell Biology at Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Science in Nagasaki, Japan; Glenn D. Prestwich from the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Center for Therapeutic Biomaterials at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City; and BioTime author Thomas I. Zarembinski.

"Heart disease remains the number one cause of mortality in the United States," said William Tew, Ph.D., BioTime's Chief Commercial Officer. "We are gratified to see the utility of our HyStem^® technology in the field of cardiology as it has been previously reported in neurology and orthopedics. We see the development of these unique matrices as a strategic means of capturing near-term commercial opportunities while building a foundation for a large pipeline of transplantable human cells derived from pluripotent stem cells such as human embryonic stem and induced pluripotent stem cells."

BioTime's goal is to obtain approval to market Renevia™ in European Union countries by the end of 2013 for use in the transplantation of adipose tissue for reconstructive and dermatological surgery. A discussion of this use of Renevia^TM in a presentation by Dr. Tew, which also describes BioTime's other plans for its HyStem^® line of products, is available online at www.biotimeinc.com.