Dr. Neil Riordan on health: what the evidence says · JRE #1066
SUBJECT: HEALTH
The short answer
Riordan cites a University of Buffalo hamster study to claim MSC secretions alone (not the cells reaching the heart) reverse heart failure. The University at Buffalo hamster heart-failure study Riordan is describing (Shabbir et al., 2009, and related work from the same lab) did find that bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) improved cardiac function in TO-2 cardiomyopathic hamsters despite few or no cells persisting in the heart, consistent with a secreted-factor (trophic/paracrine) mechanism rather than cells directly repopulating heart tissue.
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
there was a study at University of Buffalo where they took, they injected cells IV in a hamster model of heart failure. And then they looked in the heart and there were very few cells, but the heart failure got better.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
The University at Buffalo hamster heart-failure study Riordan is describing (Shabbir et al., 2009, and related work from the same lab) did find that bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) improved cardiac function in TO-2 cardiomyopathic hamsters despite few or no cells persisting in the heart, consistent with a secreted-factor (trophic/paracrine) mechanism rather than cells directly repopulating heart tissue. However, the cells in that study were not injected intravenously: the researchers delivered them intramuscularly into the hamstrings, designing the protocol that way specifically because systemic IV infusion of MSCs is known from other cited work to cause the cells to become trapped in the lungs. The paper does not report an IV arm at all. So the underlying finding Riordan cites, few or no cells reaching the heart yet heart failure improving, is accurately described, but the intravenous route he attributes to it is not what this study tested; the study used intramuscular injection instead. More broadly, this and related animal studies are preclinical: MSC-based heart failure treatment remains investigational, with human trials showing modest, mixed effects rather than an established therapy.