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Heart failure developing after acute myocardial ischaemia is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the western world. In our previous study we showed that intravenous injection of apoptotic peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) suspensions preserved cardiac function in a rat acute myocardial infarction (AMI) model. Based on these results, we sought to study the effect of soluble factors secreted by apoptotic PBMC on ventricular remodelling after AMI in rat model and in a porcine closed chest reperfused AMI model. The data of these studies indicated that intravenous infusion of cell culture supernatants of apoptotic PBMC attenuated myocardial remodelling in both experimental AMI animal models.

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Michael Lichtenauer, MD, PhD, born 1984 in Vienna, started his studies at the Medical University Vienna in 2004 and worked there as a research fellow from 2007 to 2011. Since 2011, he is working as resident physician at the Department of Cardiology, University Hospital Jena, Germany.

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