The essence of the cell therapy method in chronic ischemia of the lower limb

Abstract

Background: The results of the of cell therapy use in experimental models of ischemia of the lower limbs, in the majority of cases performed on mice and rats, and also on bigger animals demonstrated the possibilities and effectiveness of cell therapy in restoring blood flow to ischemic regions of the member. The third important property of stem cells is that they can be differentiated into diverse specialized cell types, such as muscle cells, endothelial, nervous, etc. Stem cells are the basic unit of the body, from them are formed 240 types of specialized cells and tissues of the body. These cells are involved in the revascularization and increase the secretion of numerous pro-angiogenic factors (VEGF, bFGF, PlGF-1 and MCP-1). All preclinical studies demonstrate a local neovascularization, with a functional effect, particularly in the form of increased blood flow and the number of newly formed vessels. Aspects and perspectives of cell therapy in the treatment of chronic peripheral angiopathy, especially on lower limbs are considered in this work. Conclusions: Angiogenic cell therapy today provides a therapeutic method and also an innovation that represents a breakthrough concept in treatment of ischemic diseases, especially of the legs and heart, the improvement of prognosis of these patients. This method comes to substitute the conventional methods of treatment of these diseases, which until now claim to be less effective or even ineffective, and simultaneously takes an important step in the progress of therapy, which further enriches the arsenal of methods of medical treatment. Cell therapy is one of the most perspective methods of treatment at the current stage, with the use of mature autologous mesenchymal cells, in order to increase the number of capillaries (angiogenesis), and larger caliber vessels (vasculogenesis).