Inflammatory Cell Trafficking After Myocardial Infarction

Summary

Myocardial infarction (heart attack) is usually the consequence of rupture of a fatty 'plaque' in a heart artery. The presence of this fat and debris causes the propagation of a blood clot and blockage of the artery. The heart muscle normally supplied by the artery becomes deprived of oxygen and, if starved for long enough, this area of muscle dies. Much of the heart muscle damage is caused by overactivation of inflammatory cells. Whilst inflammation can be beneficial in healing processes, there is accumulating evidence that overactivation of inflammatory processes contributes to further muscle damage and cell death during myocardial infarction. We have recently developed a means of labelling human blood cells with 'nanoparticles' of iron oxide which can then safely be reinjected into the blood to allow the cells to be tracked and seen in the body using a conventional magnetic resonance scanner.

In the proposed study we aim to recruit patients with recent heart attacks to perform similar cell labelling and reinjection of labelled cells into the same volunteer's blood stream via the arm to track the fate of the blood cells over the course of days to months. We think that the labelled inflammatory cells will 'home' to the site of the heart attack and will be visible using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the heart. We aim not only to highlight the role of inflammatory cells in myocardial infarction, but also propose that, if successful, this technique could be used in the future to assess the effects of antiinflammatory treatments currently being developed for the treatment of patients with heart attacks. The technique could also be extended to allow labelling of other cell types, including stem cells, to let us further understand how these cells may contribute to repair of damaged organs including the heart.

Conditions

• Myocardial Infarction
• Inflammation

Interventions

OTHER

Infusion of investigational product

The investigational product will be delivered via intravenous infusion

OTHER

Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging

Cardiac MRI will be performed prior to infusion of investigational product and 1, 2, 7 and 30 days after.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• British Heart Foundation

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Edinburgh

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• David E Newby, MD, PhD · University of Edinburgh

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

80 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2010-01-31

Primary Completion

2015-11-30

Completion

2016-03-31

Countries

• United Kingdom

Study Locations