Germany

Reference- and Translation Center for Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy (RTC)

INTRODUCTION

At the Reference- and Translation Center for Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy (RTC) at Rostock University new stem cell therapies for heart diseases are investigated and applied. Our goal is to enable the long-term healing of the damaged heart on the basis of Regenerative Medicine.

The RTC was inaugurated in spring 2009. It is funded by the German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) and the Ministry for Economics of the federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The RTC is one of the six core-centers for Regenerative Medicine in Germany.
The RTC connects the Clinic for Cardiac Surgery and the Research Laboratories of Cardiac Tissue and Organ Regeneration at Rostock University and coordinates their collaboration. It is located at the Biomedical Research Center in Rostock, Schillingallee 68, D – 18057 Rostock.

Director:

Prof. Dr. med. Gustav Steinhoff
Phone: +49 (0)381 - 4 94 61 00
Fax: +49 (0)381 - 4 94 61 02

E-mail: gustav.steinhoff@med.uni-rostock.de

Organisation and research interests

Prof. Dr. Gustav Steinhoff and his team have been focussing on research and therapeutical applications of autologous stem cells in cardial surgery for many years.
In the research and development-branch of the RTC there are currently three research groups which work on the efficacy and safety of stem cells. Corresponding activities are:

Investigation of the mechanism of stem cells in the myocardium applying genomic and proteomic analysis techniques
Review of efficacy and safety of applied human bone-marrow-derived CD133+ stem cells in animal models
Basic research regarding stem cell differentiation

RTC research team, summer 2010

Publications

Some representative recent publications:

Ong L, Li W, Oldigs JK, Kaminski A, Gerstmayer B, Piechaczek C, Wagner W, Li RK, Ma N, Steinhoff G:
Hypoxic/normoxic preconditioning increases endothelial differentiation potential of human bone marrow CD133+ cells. Tissue Eng Part C Methods April 6, 2010.

Ou L, Li W, Zhang Y, Wang W, Liu J, Sorg H, Furlani D, Gäbel R, Mark P, Klopsch C, Wang L, Lützow K, Lendlein A, Wagner K, Klee D, Liebold A, Li RK, Kong D, Steinhoff G, Ma N. Intracardiac injection of matrigel induces stem cell recruitment and improves cardiac functions in a rat myocardial infarction model. Journal of cellular and molecular medicine May 14, 2010.

Wang W, Li W, Ong LL, Furlani D, Kaminski A, Liebold A, Lützow K, Lendlein A, Wang J, Li RK, Steinhoff G, Ma N.Localized SDF-1alpha gene release mediated by collagen substrate induces CD117+ stem cell homing. Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine 14: 392-402, 2010.

Furlani, D; Li, W; Pittermann, E; Klopsch, C; Wang, L; Knopp, A; Jungebluth, P; Thedinga, E; Havenstein, C; Westien, I; Ugurlucan, M; Li, RK; Ma, N; Steinhoff, G: A transformed cell population derived from cultured mesenchymal stem cells has no functional effect after transplantation into the injured heart. Cell Transplant 18(3):319-31, 2009.

Furlani, D; Ugurlucan, M; Ong, L; Bieback, K; Pittermann, E; Westien, I; Wang, W; Yerebakan, C; Li, W; Gaebel, R; Li, RK; Vollmar, B; Steinhoff, G; Ma, N: Is the intravascular administration of mesenchymal stem cells safe? Mesenchymal stem cells and intravital microscopy. Microvasc Res 77(3):370-6, 2009. Epub 2009 Feb 26.

Kaminski, A; Ma, N; Donndorf, P; Lindenblatt, N; Feldmeier, G; Ong, LL; Furlani, D; Skrabal, C; Liebold, A; Vollmar, B; Steinhoff, G: Endothelial NOS is required for SDF-1alpha/CXCR4-mediated peripheral endothelial adhesion of c-kit+ bone marrow stem cells. Lab Invest 88(1):58-69, 2008.

Li, W; Ma, N; Ong, LL; Kaminski, A; Skrabal, C; Ugurlucan, M; Lorenz, P; Gatzen, HH; Lutzow, K; Lendlein, A; Putzer, BM; Li, RK; Steinhoff, G: Enhanced thoracic gene delivery by magnetic nanobead-mediated vector
J Gene Med 10(8):897-909, 2008.