Stem cell Therapy for Severe Cases of Cardiomyopathy
- Introduction
One of the leading killers in the world is heart disease. Within the category of heart disease is Cardiomyopathy. Cardiomyopathy is the disease of the heart muscle. The heart is the pump for blood circulation. Therefore, the disease of the heart muscle decreases the efficiency of blood circulation. This has many effects on the human body that are debilitating including arrhythmias, congestive heart failure, and extreme fatigue. There are many things that medications are designed to manage, but the damage to the heart muscle is something that medications can do nothing to stop. This has led researchers to look for other forms of treatment. The use of stem cell therapy is something that has the potential to change the focus of treatment from just dealing with the debilitating symptoms to a treatment that reverses damage to the heart muscle. This therapy is a true regenerative treatment for heart disease. This therapy is a true regenerative treatment for heart disease.
- Pathophysiology
Why is the condition so damaging without stem cell intervention? Pathophysiology is the study of disordered physiological processes that result from injury or dysfunction of an organ or system affected and assists in determining the cause of the condition. This is true for all forms of Cardiomyopathy. Each disease starts with adverse remodeling of the ventricles. There are a number of ways that ventricular remodeling can occur including genetic mutations and environmental factors. Each of these are ways that injury can occur to the muscle tissue in the ventricle and among the cellular events that take place is an inflammatory response that leads to additional extensive damage from cardiac fibrosis where fibroblasts secrete too much of the extracellular matrix and the cellular matrix becomes too rigid leading to a loss of elasticity in the ventricular walls. This process contributes to diastolic or systolic dysfunction of the heart. The result of this process is the dramatic loss of physical capabilities of the affected patients and daily activities become restricted due to severe shortness of breath. Eventually, the diminished cardiac output reduces the quality of life of patients, and the dilated Cardiomyopathy leads to the hypoperfusion of vital organs and the result is a short life span.
- Limitations in Current Treatments
Present day treatment methods are still limited and use a lot of medications in the treatment of this condition. The standard treatments that physicians use include a combination of β blockers, ACE inhibitors. and diuretics. While patients with these diseases are on these medications their cardiac pump performance dysfunction is also resulting in the uncontrolled setting of their blood pressure and cardiac workload and these medications improve their symptoms and restore hemodynamic stability. In cases where Cardiomyopathy is more advanced, the patients are placed on an implantable device to cardiovert and implantable cardioverter-defibrillator to avoid a sudden cardiac decline. In the end, the heart can no longer be treated with simple end stage heart failure symptoms requiring only a biotic heart. The problem with all of the commonly encountered clinical measures is limit in that medications can only be used to treat the disease and control the disease and they do not regenerate the necrotic tissue in the myocardium. In addition to those challenges, there are additional challenges that are intricate and involve major surgery. Those challenges, together with those major physiological challenges, cause a limited supply of organs for transplant and patients continue to wait and are frustrated with the long wait for organ transplantation. The more these patients wait, the more it emphasizes the impact of advanced cell culture technology and cellular therapeutic techniques to improve regenerative medicine and stem cell therapy.
- Mechanisms of Stem cells
The foundation of stem cell therapies rests on the ability to heal and repair tissue in ways that other treatment strategies cannot. There are various types of stem cells that can be used to repair tissue damaged by severe Cardiomyopathy. These cells possess the ability to communicate with other cells in the heart damaged by disease. Even without structural integration into the heart cells, these stem cells release growth factors and vesicles that help to control the injury. They help to control the inflammation and prevent the injury from causing the heart cells to die. Additionally, the stem cells help to stimulate the growth of new blood vessels, which helps to supply the heart with oxygen in the area that has lost blood supply. There is little doubt that patients who suffer from congestive heart failure will be the first to receive stem cell therapies.
- The Future in Thailand
Thailand, like other countries in the region, is fast becoming a focal point for regenerative medicine in Southeast Asia. The country has a proprietary ecosystem for the safe development of certain stem cell applications for the treatment of diseases of the cardiovascular system. This is due to the excellent infrastructure in Thailand, which is complemented by internationally certified treatment centers. Thai medical professionals in the country work in active collaboration with internationally recognized leaders in their respective fields to perform controlled studies. Moreover, Thailand has a highly supportive but strictly controlling system which balances the safety of the patients with the encouragement of new innovations in the field of medicine. Additionally, highly specialized medical services are available globally at an affordable cost. This allows Thailand to offer the services of a large number of medical professionals at a relatively low cost. The rapidly evolving biological methods allow Thailand to provide stem cell therapies to patients with severe forms of Cardiomyopathy, worldwide, with increased frequency.