Noticias

Noticias

  • Título: Cell therapy fails to improve walking ability for patients with peripheral artery disease
  • Fecha: 20-11-2013

  • Chicago –Joseph Poole, M.D., Ph.D., of the Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta,and colleagues studied whether therapy with granulocyte-macrophage colonystimulating factor (GM-CSF), an agent that functions as a white blood cellgrowth factor, would improve walking performance in patients with symptomaticperipheral artery disease (a form of vascular disease in which there is partialor total blockage of an artery, usually one leading to a leg or arm).

    "Peripheralartery disease (PAD) affects more than 8 million individuals in the UnitedStates. Although exercise, smoking cessation, antiplatelet therapy, cilostazol[a medication for PAD], statins, and revascularization are used to treat PAD,men and women with PAD have significantly greater functional impairment andfaster functional decline than those without PAD. Stem and progenitor cell (PC)therapy that promotes neoangiogenesis [formation of blood vessels] is anemerging treatment modality in PAD," according to background informationin the article. Progenitor cells are involved in vascular repair andregeneration.

    The phase2, placebo-controlled study included 159 patients with intermittentclaudication (pain in leg muscles, aggravated by walking and caused by aninsufficient supply of blood). Participants were randomized to received 4 weeksof subcutaneous (under the skin) injections of GM-CSF (leukine), 3 times a week(n = 80), or placebo (n = 79).

    Theresearchers found that therapy with GM-CSF did not improve treadmill walkingtime, a measure of PAD severity at 3-month follow-up. "The improvement ina subset of secondary outcomes observed with GM-CSF suggests that GM-CSF maywarrant further study in patients with claudication. In addition, further investigationis needed to investigate the variability of responsiveness to GM-CSF and itsclinical significance."



  • Fuente: endovascular.es