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Arrhythmogenesis: a Roadblock to Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy

  • Regenerative Medicine and Stem-cell Therapy (SM Wu and P Hsieh, Section Editors)
  • Published:
Current Treatment Options in Cardiovascular Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Opinion statement

Despite significant advances in the treatment of ischemic heart disease (IHD), it remains the leading cause of mortality worldwide. Undoubtedly, methods for regenerating the injured human heart are urgently needed, and whilst exciting progress has been made from utilizing stem cell therapy for cardiac regeneration, several major challenges still remain. In particular, one major safety issue is the occurrence of potentially life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias after cell therapy. Several drivers may be responsible for this, ranging from the potential inherent arrhythmogenicity of delivered stem cells to that of the underlying IHD. Therefore, it is imperative to thoroughly assess the risk-to-benefit ratio of such treatments prior to the clinical application. As such, despite the considerable progress made in stem cell therapy over the past decades, many obstacles still lie ahead.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

    Yen-Wen Liu MD, PhD & Li-Jen Lin MD

  2. Department of Human Genetics, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Chi-Ting Su MD, PhD

  3. Renal Division, Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital Yun-Lin Branch, Yun-Lin, Taiwan

    Chi-Ting Su MD, PhD

  4. Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

    Christopher Y. T. Yen MS & Patrick C. H. Hsieh MD, PhD

  5. Institute of Medical Genomics and Proteomics and Department of Surgery, National Taiwan University and Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

    Patrick C. H. Hsieh MD, PhD

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  1. Yen-Wen Liu MD, PhD
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  2. Chi-Ting Su MD, PhD
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Correspondence to Patrick C. H. Hsieh MD, PhD.

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Conflict of Interest

Yen-Wen Liu, Chi-Ting Su, Christopher Y.T. Yen, and Li-Jen Lin each declare no potential conflicts of interest.

Patrick C.H. Hsieh reports research funding from AstraZeneca. Dr. Hsieh is a section editor for Current Treatment Options in Cardiovascular Medicine.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Regenerative Medicine and Stem-cell Therapy

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Liu, YW., Su, CT., Yen, C.Y.T. et al. Arrhythmogenesis: a Roadblock to Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy. Curr Treat Options Cardio Med 18, 61 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11936-016-0481-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11936-016-0481-7

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