Heart Failure & Cardiac Repair and Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSC): what the trial registry contains
The ClinicalTrials.gov registry holds 32 records for MSC in Heart Failure & Cardiac Repair: 3 recruiting now, 5 labelled Phase 3 or 4, across 16 countries. Snapshot 2026-08-29.
Why this is studied in Heart Failure & Cardiac Repair
Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction involves lost cardiomyocytes and adverse remodelling. Cell therapy has been studied here longer than in almost any other indication, and the arc is instructive: early enthusiasm, mixed later-phase results, and a field that has narrowed its claims from regeneration to modest functional support.
What MSC means in this table
Mesenchymal stromal cells are the workhorse of commercial cell therapy: easy to source from fat, cord or marrow, easy to expand, and rarely characterised in the same way twice. Their proposed action is paracrine — signalling molecules that damp inflammation — rather than replacement of lost tissue. That matters when reading counts like these, because two studies filed under the same label can test materially different products at different doses by different routes.
The numbers
Every figure below comes from one reproducible query (heart failure x mesenchymal stem cell) run against ClinicalTrials.gov API v2 on 2026-08-29.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Registered studies (all statuses) | 32 |
| Interventional studies in the sample | 32 |
| Recruiting right now | 3 |
| Completed | 15 |
| Terminated, withdrawn or suspended | 9 |
| Phase 3 or Phase 4 records | 5 |
| Countries with at least one site | 16 |
| Median planned enrolment | 50 participants |
| Largest single planned enrolment | 565 participants |
| First / most recent start year | 2005 — 2026 |
How mature is this evidence?
Sponsors have committed to confirmatory designs here — 5 of 32 records at Phase 3 or 4 — which raises the standard of evidence a commercial claim should be held to.
Registrations do not all survive contact with recruitment — 15 completed here, 9 stopped early, giving a 28% attrition rate.
| Phase label | Records | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Phase 2 | 22 | 48% |
| Phase 1 | 18 | 39% |
| Phase 3 | 5 | 11% |
| Not applicable | 1 | 2% |
Median planned enrolment is 50 participants (largest single study: 565). Trials of this size can describe safety and generate hypotheses; detecting a modest clinical benefit reliably usually needs substantially larger numbers with a control group.
Where the studies are
Across 16 countries with registered sites, United States dominates at roughly 43% — a concentration driven by funding and regulation rather than by clinical outcome.
| Country | Studies with a site there |
|---|---|
| United States | 13 |
| China | 5 |
| Russia | 2 |
| Greece | 2 |
| Canada | 2 |
| Denmark | 2 |
| Netherlands | 1 |
| Antigua and Barbuda | 1 |
| Argentina | 1 |
| Iran | 1 |
Legal pathway differs by country — see where cell therapy is legal, by country.
Who runs them
Funding profile: 4 academic or hospital sponsors against 7 commercial ones — commercial overall, which is worth knowing before reading any single positive report.
- AHEPA University Hospital — 2 records
- Mesoblast, Inc. — 2 records
- M.D. Anderson Cancer Center — 2 records
- Joshua M Hare — 2 records
- Shanghai East Hospital — 2 records
- Secretome Therapeutics — 1 record
Representative registered studies
Recruiting studies first, then the most advanced phases. Each identifier links to the registry record, where eligibility criteria, outcome measures and contacts are published.
| Study | Phase | Status | Planned n | Lead sponsor | Start |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NCT07192211 — Exploratory Study of ADR-002K for Heart Failure Patients With Ischemic Heart Disease Who Undergo CABG | Phase 2 | Recruiting | 50 | Rohto Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. | 2026-04-28 |
| NCT07265349 — A Phase I/II Clinical Trial of Intramyocardial Injection of HucMSCs for the Treatment of Chronic Heart Failure | Phase 1, Phase 2 | Recruiting | 51 | Tasly Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd | 2025-12-26 |
| NCT06560762 — Study in Participants With Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction (HFpEF) | Phase 1 | Recruiting | 12 | Secretome Therapeutics | 2025-03-03 |
| NCT05925608 — Clinical Trial of Human Allogenic Culture-expanded Bone Marrow-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells | Phase 1, Phase 2 | Active Not Recruiting | 39 | BioCardia, Inc. | 2023-08-23 |
| NCT05043610 — MSCs for Prevention of MI-induced HF | Phase 3 | Completed | 420 | Shiraz University of Medical Sciences | 2021-09-15 |
| NCT03418233 — Randomized Clinical Trial to Evaluate the Regenerative Capacity of CardioCell in Patients With Chronic Ischaemic Heart Failure (CIHF) | Phase 2, Phase 3 | Completed | 115 | John Paul II Hospital, Krakow | 2018-04-19 |
| NCT02032004 — Efficacy and Safety of Allogeneic Mesenchymal Precursor Cells (Rexlemestrocel-L) for the Treatment of Heart Failure | Phase 3 | Completed | 565 | Mesoblast, Inc. | 2014-03-03 |
| NCT01759212 — Left Ventricular Assist Device Combined With Allogeneic Mesenchymal Stem Cells Implantation in Patients With End-stage Heart Failure. | Phase 2, Phase 3 | Terminated | 1 | AHEPA University Hospital | 2012-10 |
| NCT01394432 — "ESTIMATION Study" for Endocardial Mesenchymal Stem Cells Implantation in Patients After Acute Myocardial Infarction | Phase 3 | Unknown | 50 | Meshalkin Research Institute of Pathology of Circulation | 2011-07 |
| NCT06840275 — ASCs in Recently Diagnosed Non-ischemic Heart Failure | Phase 2 | Withdrawn | n/a | Cell to Cure ApS | 2026-03-01 |
What this page does and does not tell you
Treat this as a map of research activity. It tells you whether a claim has an evidence programme behind it — not whether the treatment helped anyone.
If a clinic offers you this today, the useful question is not "is there research?" but "which of these registered studies is mine part of, and if none, what evidence applies to the exact product I am being sold?" The Provider Question Builder turns that into a scored checklist.
Frequently asked
How many MSC studies for Heart Failure & Cardiac Repair are recruiting right now?
3 of 32 registered records were listed as recruiting in the 2026-08-29 snapshot. Recruitment status changes frequently; the registry record is authoritative.
Is MSC an approved treatment for Heart Failure & Cardiac Repair?
Registration on ClinicalTrials.gov is not approval. Approval is granted by a regulator for a specific product and indication after review of submitted evidence. 32 registered studies tell you research exists, not that a product cleared review.
How advanced is the research on MSC for Heart Failure & Cardiac Repair?
5 of 32 records carry a Phase 3 or Phase 4 label and 15 are marked completed. Registrations run from 2005 to 2026.
Registry and literature counts retrieved 2026-08-29 (ClinicalTrials.gov API v2; PubMed E-utilities). Registration or publication volume measures research activity, not effectiveness or approval. Educational information — not medical advice; verify product, indication, legal pathway and evidence with an independent qualified physician. Page generated 2026-08-29. See our editorial standards.
More on this condition
- Heart Failure & Cardiac Repair: cell-therapy evidence and registered trials
- How much does stem cell therapy for Heart Failure & Cardiac Repair cost? (2026)
- Heart Failure & Cardiac Repair stem cell therapy — your questions answered (2026)
- Heart Failure & Cardiac Repair: cell-therapy evidence by therapy class
- MSC vs HSCT for Heart Failure & Cardiac Repair: what the registries show
Download the query data
Query totals are full API matches; status, phase and country counts describe the first up to 400 returned records per query. Query classes overlap and must not be summed as unique trials. Counts are not treatment outcomes. Snapshot: 2026-08-29. Methods and field definitions.