TDNet Discover

Background: Heart failure is a condition in which the heart muscle cannot pump enough blood through the body to fulfill the demand of oxygen needed. Put simply, the body’s demand for oxygen outpaces the supply in the bloodstream. The heart is divided into right and left sides, and four quadrants;the right atrium, right ventricle, left atrium, and left ventricle. When referring to types of heart failure, it is important to understand the concept of ejection fraction, specifically of the left ventricle. Left ventricular ejection fraction is the heart’s ability to pump blood efficiently from the left ventricle to the rest of the body, providing oxygen. Individuals with heart failure typically do not have good left ventricular ejection fraction due to muscle damage. Purpose: This research sought to provide a systematic review of the literature surrounding the utilization of current heart failure treatment options in combination with mesenchymal stem cell therapy to determine if dual therapy was safer and more efficacious than current treatments alone. Methods: Databases of Google Scholar, PubMed, and CINAHL were employed using the search terms of “Stem Cell AND heart failure OR LVEF” and “Stem cell AND heart failure AND metaanalysis OR systematic review” . Three different systematic reviews were identified by three researchers and meticulously analyzed for overlapping experiments to find the best singular information on the subject. Results: Mesenchymal stem cells significantly improve quality of life and left ventricular ejection fraction in all experiments with the exception of skeletal myoblasts. Skeletal myoblasts showed a significant difference in quality of life, but not in left ventricular ejection fraction. iii Conclusion: With this research, the logical conclusion is to provide mesenchymal stem cell transplantation as a promising, safe alternative to patients with progressive left-sided heart failure