Mesenchymal precursor cell therapy did not meet its primary endpoint of reducing heart failure hospitalisations in a phase III trial, but secondary outcomes do suggest some benefits, researchers report.

Professor Emerson Perin of Texas Heart Institute, US told delegates at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2021 virtual meeting that mesenchymal precursor cells (MPCs) may decrease cardiac inflammation, reduce heart muscle death, induce a microvascular network in heart muscle, and reverse endothelial dysfunction.

He reported the results of the multicentre, double-blind, sham-controlled, phase III DREAM-HF trial in which 537 patients (mean age 63, 80% male) with heart failure (HF) with reduced ejection fraction were randomised either to a single injection into the heart of some 150 million stem cells from another adult or a sham procedure.

The primary endpoint in DREAM-HF (“Randomised Trial of Targeted Transendocardial Delivery of Mesenchymal Precursor Cells in High-Risk Chronic Heart Failure Patients with Reduced Ejection Fraction) was the mean cumulative rate of recurrent non-fatal decompensated HF hospitalisations per 100 patients.