Bone Marrow Cell Therapy Ameliorates and Reverses Chagasic Cardiomyopathy in a Mouse Model

Chronic chagasic cardiomyopathy,which is causedby theproto-zoanTrypanosomacruzi, is amajor causeofheart failure inLatin America. It is a disease for which effective treatment in its ad-vanced clinical forms is lacking.We have previously shown that bone marrowmononuclear cell (BMC) transplantation is effec-tive inreducing inflammationandfibrosis in themousemodelof Chagas disease. The present study usedmagnetic resonance im-aging to assess changes in the cardiac morphology of infected miceafter therapywithBMCs.Serial imagingof theBMC-treated mice revealed regression of the right ventricular dilatation typi-cally observed in the chagasicmousemodel. Infectionwith the protozoanTrypanosoma cruzi causesChagas dis-ease, which can result in acutemyocarditis and a dilated cardiomy-opathy. Although treatment with antiparasitic drugs may be bene-ficial in cases of acute infection, once chronic cardiomyopathy ha