Amniotic Membrane-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Heart Failure: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Published Preclinical Studies

Ischemic cardiomyopathies are the leading causes of mortality and morbidity. Stem cell therapy using amniotic membrane mesenchymal stem cells have emerged as a promising cardiac regeneration modality. They have shown great immunological advantage when used in allogeneic or xenogeneic transplantation. The aim of the current study is to accumulate evidence from published preclinical studies on the application of amniotic membrane derived mesenchymal stem cells (AMSCs) in the treatment of ischemic cardiomyopathies including myocardial ischemia and heart failure. The aim is to define if there is enough high-quality current evidence to support starting the use of these cells in clinical trials.

PubMed, SCOPUS, EMBASE, and ISI Web of Science databases were searched without temporal and language restrictions. Data were extracted from selected studies. The primary outcomes were left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and LV fibrosis. The risk of bias (ROB) assessment was performed using SYRCLE’s ROB tool. After qualitative synthesis, provided that data meets the criteria for quantitative analysis, a meta-analysis was performed using Stata software V12 to investigate the heterogeneity of the data and to get an overall estimate of the effect size of the treatment on each outcome.

On primary search, 438 citations were retrieved. After screening, three studies were selected for quantitative analysis of each of the outcomes LVEF and LV fibrosis. Their administration in acute and chronic MI alleviates heart failure and improves LVEF (SMD=3.56, 95% CI: 2.24-4.87, I-squared=83.1%, p=0.003) and reduces infarct size (SMD= -4.41, 95% CI: (-5.68)-(-3.14), I-squared=79.0%, p=0.009). These observations were achieved in the acute MI model, HF following ischemia due to coronary artery stenosis and coronary artery occlusion with the early restoration of the perfusion.

Present low and medium quality evidence from preclinical studies confirm the efficacy of the AMSCs in the preclinical models of acute MI and HF following ischemia due to coronary artery stenosis and permanent/temporary coronary artery occlusion. High-quality preclinical studies are indicated to bridge the gaps in translation of the current findings of AMSCs research for the treatment of patients with acute and chronic myocardial ischemia and heart failure.