This exciting symposium was very well attended, thus testifying the enormous interest of the cardiovascular community in stem cells. The speakers delivered very interesting talks.
Dr. R Vettor ( Padua , Italy ) selected multipotent cells from the adult adipose tissue and induced the differentiation of some subclones in cardiomyocyte-like cells.
Dr. LJ Field ( Indianapolis , USA ) studied the potential of putative cardiac resident progenitor cells to give origin to “real” cardiomyocytes. To this aim, he selected Lineage negative/Sca-1 positive cells from the adult heart of mice genetically modified to express the fluorescent protein EGFP and transplanted them in the heart of wild type mice.
By using a device able to record the intracellular calcium transients in situ, Dr. Field proved that after 3 weeks, the transplantation-derived EGFP-positive cells did not show intracellular calcium transients. Additionally, these cells did not present a cardiomyocyte-like morphology.
This finding is in striking contrast with the working hypothesis of Piero Anversa and others that cardiac resident stem and progenitor cells may regenerate the heart by replacing damaged cardiomyocytes.
Dr. S. Fuchs ( Petach-Tikva , Israel ) presented a good review of the cardiovascular clinical trials with stem cells (mainly of bone marrow origin).
Dr. P. De Coppi ( London , UK ) illustrated his very well conducted work on stem cells derived from the amniotic fluid and the placenta.
Finally, Dr. C. Denning ( Nottingham , UK ) presented an excellent talk on embryonic stem cells.