Pluristem's ($PSTI) PLX Cells Effective in Treatment of Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) in Animal Trial

Daily Dose Conclusion: The stock has moved up well here in midday trading as investors are excited that PSTI is exploring other indications beyond just CLI. Pluristem data helps raise the questions (and the makes the boundaries a bit more foggy) between autologous and allogeneic pro's and con's. This is clearly an allo product (pills in a bottle if you will) but the cells are from the placenta and PSTI claims they are immuno-privledged. Other companies have shown definitively that only autologous cells remain resident and provide functional ongoing neo-angiogenesis. Pluristem has said their cells are cleared, so as such we are concerned that PSTI's allo-cells are cellular short term approach (maybe very beneficial near term) but unlikely to show long term benefits in man. We just don't know.  Certainly the animal data presented look's good.

Of greater focus for investors should be PSTI's start of the CLI trial ? Is this on hold until manufacturing is cleared in the new facility, or will it start prior  ?  Keep an eye (or a heart out) for data from ASTM on DCM - dialtaed cardio-myopathy, NeoStem NBS in AMI-STEMI, Baxter-CMI, Cytori (AMI) and MesoBlast and Athersys, both AMI too.

View the full PSTI chart at Wikinvest

Significantly Improved Cardiac Function, Smaller Infarct Size With Greater Regional Left Ventricle Wall Thickness and the Pronounced Stimulation of New Vessels Formation Were Observed in Animals Treated With PLX Cells

Pluristem Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq:PSTI) (TASE:PLTR) today announced that its PLacental eXpanded (PLX) cells, tested in a preclinical animal model of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), proved to effectively improve several cardiac hemodynamic parameters in animals that received those cells. The study was conducted in collaboration with Professor Christof Stamm, MD and Professor Carsten Tschope MD and their respective staffs at the Center for Regenerative Therapies (BCRT), Berlin, Germany.

Twenty mice suffered an AMI by ligating the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery via thoracotomy. Immediately following the AMI, animals were given either PLX cells (n=10) or cell-free medium as a control (n=10) into the border zone of the infarct. Additionally, five animals underwent a sham (placebo) operation by incurring the thoracotomy but without ligation of the LAD.

After 4 weeks, transthoracic echocardiography was performed, the mice were sacrificed and their hearts examined histologically. Hemodynamic studies demonstrated improved cardiac contractile function in the mice which received the PLX cells as compared to control-treated mice. The improved cardiac contractile function included a statistically significant increase in stroke volume (p=0.01) (fig. 1) and ejection fraction (p=0.06) (fig. 2). Additionally, PLX cell-treated hearts had significantly smaller infarct sizes (p=0.04) and greater regional Left Ventricular (LV) wall thickness (fig. 3). Histological analysis indicated that those animals treated with PLX cells displayed a statistically significant higher number of mature arterial vessels in the infarct border zone than in control animals (p=0.004) and suggests that PLX cells induce the formation of new blood vessels into ischemic myocardium (fig. 4). Charts and images accompanying this release are available at http://media.globenewswire.com/cache/11974/file/12981.pdf

See the full press release @ NASDAQ.com