Bone marrow-derived cell therapy in chagasic cardiac disease: a review of pre-clinical and clinical results.

Chagas disease is caused by a protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which infects people through blood sucking insects. It is endemic in Latin America and the disease is being spread to developed countries as a result of the migration of infected individuals. In its chronic stage, Chagas disease can lead to a severe cardiomyopathy for which there is currently no cure. End-stage patients require heart transplantation, thus demanding new therapeutic modalities. Cell-based therapy has been proposed as an alternative for various forms of heart disease. Here we review the experimental evidence that led to the use of bone marrow-derived cells in putative therapy for chronic chagasic cardiomyopathy in animal models and in clinical trials, discussing the reasons for failure of the translation of results from mice to men.