Cytori Therapeutics says fatty tissue may reduce risk of irregular heartbeat

By Elaine Rigoli

Tampa, Fla., April 21 - Cytori Therapeutics, Inc. said data from a preclinical study demonstrates that adipose stem and regenerative cell-based therapy following a heart attack in pigs is not associated with an increased risk of irregular heart rhythms, which can result in potentially life-threatening complications.

The data indicate that adipose tissue, also known as fat, may reduce the incidence of these potentially fatal arrhythmias.

"In addition to the improved functional benefit consistently observed in preclinical heart attack studies, this data suggest adipose stem and regenerative cells are not associated with increased risk of arrhythmias," president Marc H. Hedrick said in a news release.

"This is an important finding due to the reported incidence of arrhythmias observed in clinical cardiac cell therapies derived from alternate cell sources. Additionally, it further supports our evaluation of this novel treatment in human clinical trials, which we intend to initiate this year."

Adipose stem cells or a saline control injection were administered into infarcted subjects, and heart rhythms were constantly monitored throughout the eight-week study period.

At no point during this time was a difference in irregular heart beats between the groups observed, indicating that cell-treated animals do not show an increase in potentially fatal arrhythmias, the company said.

On the contrary, at the end of the study period, an electrophysiologic stimulation that artificially induces arrhythmias showed a significant longer cycle length, a measure of the electrical activity controlling heart contractions, in the cell-treated group, which is indicative of a more organized and stable heart rhythm compared to the control group, the company said.

Cytori Therapeutics, based in San Diego, discovers and develops proprietary cell-based therapeutics using adult stem and regenerative cells.

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