Current status and perspectives of cell therapy in Chagas disease

Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz

Milena Botelho Pereira Soares¹  Ricardo Ribeiro Dos Santos¹ 

[1] ,Fiocruz Centro de Pesquisas Gonçalo Moniz Salvador BA ,Brasil

关键词: Chagas disease;    cardiomyopathy;    cellular therapy;    stem cells;    tissue inflammation;    fibrosis;   

DOI  :  10.1590/S0074-02762009000900043

来源: SciELO

【 摘 要 】

One century after its discovery, Chagas disease, caused by the protozoan, Trypanosoma cruzi, remains a major health problem in Latin America. Mortality and morbidity are mainly due to chronic processes that lead to dysfunction of the cardiac and digestive systems. About one third of the chronic chagasic individuals have or will develop the symptomatic forms of the disease, with cardiomyopathy being the most common chronic form. This is a progressively debilitating disease for which there are no currently available effective treatments other than heart transplantation. Like in other cardiac diseases, tissue engineering and cell therapy have been investigated in the past few years as a means of recovering the heart function lost as a consequence of chronic damage caused by the immune-mediated pathogenic mechanisms elicited in individuals with chronic chagasic cardiomyopathy. Here we review the studies of cell therapy in animal models and patients with chronic Chagas disease and the perspectives of the recovery of the heart function lost due to infection with T. cruzi.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
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