Ricerc@Sapienza

Stem cell therapy is a regenerative medicine technique consisting in
introducing new cells into a damaged tissue in order to restore it. In this paper we
present our multidisciplinary approach about the possible use of the Human
Mesenchymal Stem Cells in treating heart failure. A multidisciplinary team
composed by biologists, mathematicians, cardiologists and bioengineers was
selected in order to investigate the feasibility of repairing the necrotic tissue
damaged by myocardial infarction by means of Mesenchymal Stem Cells and to
implement a new software simulator able to reproduce cells implantation, migration
and proliferation. In the first step, biologists and cardiologists studied the Human
Mesenchymal Stem Cells and measured selected parameters. Stem cells were
isolated and cultured in order to study their growth and characterization. In the
second step, mathematicians and bioengineers developed a new numerical model
based on the studies and the data measured during in vitro experiments. The first
version of the software simulator named MiStTher is able to give a first qualitative
description of the stem cell therapy in some simplified schemes.