ClinicalTrials.gg
RecruitingNCT05068674HECTORUpdated Sep 29, 2025

Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocyte Therapy for Chronic Ischemic Left Ventricular Dysfunction

A Phase 1 interventional study of Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocyte 50M cells and Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocyte 150 cells in Chronic Ischemic Left Ventricular Dysfunction, sponsored by Joseph C. Wu. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 21 Years to 80 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-09-29.

Sponsored by Joseph C. Wu · Phase 1, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Started Mar 2022; still recruiting 4 years 7 months later.
Phase
Phase 1
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
18
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
21 Years to 80 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This clinical study will utilize a new cell therapy approach (Human embryonic stem cells derived cardiomyocytes or hESC-CMs) to improve survival and cardiac function in patients with chronic left ventricular dysfunction secondary to MI (Myocardial Infarction).

Read the detailed description

The phase I dose-escalation pilot study is intended as an initial safety assessment to establish the MTD prior to the phase II randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study. An estimated eighteen (18) patients in phase I who are scheduled to undergo cardiac catheterization and have met all inclusion/exclusion criteria will be enrolled.

02

Conditions studied

  • Chronic Ischemic Left Ventricular Dysfunction
03

In context

Ventricular Dysfunction, Left

260 studies on the registry are indexed under Ventricular Dysfunction, Left; 57 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 18 is below the median of 100 across 151 interventional studies indexed under Ventricular Dysfunction, Left.

Browse Ventricular Dysfunction, Left studies →

Lead sponsor

Joseph C. Wu is the lead sponsor of 3 studies on the registry; 3 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
21 Years to 80 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Be ≥ 21 and \< 80 years of age.
  • Provide written .
  • Have a diagnosis of chronic ischemic left ventricular dysfunction secondary to MI as defined by previous myocardial infarction documented by an imaging study demonstrating coronary artery disease with corresponding areas of akinesis, dyskinesis, or severe hypokinesis.
  • Be a candidate for cardiac catheterization within 5 to 10 weeks of screening.
  • Have been treated with appropriate maximal medical therapy for heart failure or postinfarction left ventricular dysfunction. For beta-blockade, the patient must have been on a stable dose of a clinically appropriate beta-blocker for 3 months. For angiotensinconverting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) or angiotensin receptor neprilysin inhibitors (ARNIs) or have appropriate medical indication precluding use of one or both of these agents, the patient must have been on a stable dose of a clinically appropriate agent for 1 month or within no more than doubling the dose of any of ARB, ACE inhibitors, and ARNIs over the last 3 months.
  • below 40%.
  • Class II/III symptoms of heart failure within the 6 months prior to baseline testing.
  • Hospitalization in the past 6 months or NT pro-BNP > 1200 pg/mL, or >1600 pg/mL if atrial fibrillation was present.
  • Automated implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (AICD) in place.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Have a baseline \< 35 ml/min/1.73 m2
  • Have a known, serious radiographic contrast allergy.
  • Have a prosthetic aortic valve or heart constrictive device.
  • Have a documented presence of aortic stenosis (aortic stenosis graded as 1.5 cm2 or less).
  • Have a documented presence of moderate to severe aortic insufficiency (echocardiographic assessment of aortic insufficiency graded as ≥+2).
  • Have evidence of a life-threatening arrhythmia in the absence of a defibrillator (nonsustained ventricular tachycardia ≥ 20 consecutive beats or complete second- or third-degree heart block in the absence of a functioning pacemaker) or > 550 ms on screening .
  • AICD firing in the past 60 days prior to enrollment.
  • Be eligible for or require coronary artery revascularization.
  • Have a hematologic abnormality as evidenced by hematocrit \< 25%, white blood cell \< 2,500/µl, or values \< 100,000/µl without another explanation.
  • Have liver dysfunction, as evidenced by enzymes ( and ALT) greater than three times the .
  • Have a coagulopathy ( > 1.3) not due to a reversible cause (i.e., Coumadin). Patients on Coumadin will be withdrawn 5 days before the procedure and confirmed to have an INR \< 1.3. Patients who cannot be withdrawn from Coumadin will be excluded from enrollment.
  • Have known allergies to penicillin or streptomycin.
  • Be an organ transplant recipient.
  • Have a history of organ or cell transplant rejection.
  • Have a clinical history of within 5 years (i.e., patients with prior malignancy must be disease-free for 5 years), except curatively-treated basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, or cervical carcinoma.
  • Have a non-cardiac condition that limits lifespan to \< 1 year.
  • Be on chronic therapy with medication, such as or TNFα antagonists.
  • Be serum-positive for , hepatitis BsAg, or viremic .
  • Be currently participating (or participated within the previous 30 days) in an therapeutic or device trial.
  • Be a female patient who is pregnant, nursing, or have but is not using effective .
  • Tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 within the last 30 days
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(18)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

LVEF (left ventricular ejection fraction)

The share of blood the heart’s main pumping chamber (the left ventricle) pushes out with each beat, measured by an echocardiogram (heart ultrasound) or a MUGA scan. About 50–70% is normal.

NYHA class (heart failure)

The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.

I
No limits: ordinary activity causes no undue tiredness or breathlessness.
II
Slight limits: comfortable at rest, ordinary activity causes symptoms.
III
Marked limits: comfortable at rest, less than ordinary activity causes symptoms.
IV
Symptoms even at rest; any activity makes them worse.

Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.

GFR and eGFR (kidney filtering)

GFR (glomerular filtration rate) is how much blood the kidneys filter each minute. It is usually estimated from a blood test — eGFR, by formulas such as CKD-EPI or MDRD — and some studies ask for it to be measured directly instead. Usually given in mL/min/1.73 m².

Check the method, the units and the minimum the study states. A value of 90 or above is in the normal-or-high range, but kidney damage can show in other tests too.

QT and QTc

On an ECG, the QT interval is the time the heart’s lower chambers take to activate electrically and recover in each beat. QTc is that time adjusted for heart rate (QTcF by Fridericia’s formula, QTcB by Bazett’s). Some medicines lengthen it, and a long QTc can raise the risk of a dangerous heart rhythm.

The study may name a correction formula and a limit in milliseconds, often around 450–480.

ECG (electrocardiogram)

A recording of the heart’s electrical activity, taken with stickers on the chest, arms and legs. It takes a few minutes and does not hurt.

Platelets

Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.

ALT and AST (liver enzymes)

Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.

Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.

ULN (upper limit of normal)

The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.

“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.

INR, PT and aPTT (clotting tests)

Blood tests of how long blood takes to clot. The INR is the prothrombin time (PT) put on a common scale; about 1 is usual for someone not taking a blood thinner.

Criteria often make an exception for people on a blood thinner such as warfarin, whose INR is raised on purpose.

Cancer (malignancy)

Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.

Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.

Immunosuppression

A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.

Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.

Corticosteroids (steroids)

Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.

Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.

HIV

The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.

Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.

Hepatitis C tests

Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.

After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.

Investigational drug or device

A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.

It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.

Childbearing potential

Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).

Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 1
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Sequential assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
18 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Active comparator
    Cohort 1

    Low dose (50M cells)

    Drug: Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocyte 50M cells

  • Active comparator
    Cohort 2

    Medium dose (150M cells)

    Drug: Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocyte 150 cells

  • Active comparator
    Cohort 3

    High dose (300M cells)

    Drug: Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocyte 300M cells

Interventions

  • DrugHuman Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocyte 50M cells

    50 million (M) cells delivered in a dose of 5M cells per injection over 10 injections.

    Also known as: Human ESC-CMs

  • DrugHuman Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocyte 150 cells

    150M cells delivered in a dose of 15M cells per injection over 10 injections

    Also known as: Human ESC-CMs

  • DrugHuman Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocyte 300M cells

    300M cells delivered in a dose of 30M per injection over 10 injections

    Also known as: Human ESC-CMs

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. The maximum tolerated dose (MTD) among 3 dose levels of allogeneic human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hESC-CMs)

    The primary endpoints are safety and feasibility. The feasibility of preparing and delivering the study product, as well as collecting cardiac MRI variables in subjects will be assessed.

    Time frame: 3 Years

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Started Mar 2022 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Oct 2028, 79 months after the start.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Sep 24, 2021
First posted
Oct 6, 2021
StartActual
Mar 22, 2022
Primary completionEst.
Oct 2028
CompletionEst.
Oct 2028
Last update
Sep 29, 2025
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Sep 29, 2025, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05068674
Lead sponsor
Joseph C. Wu
Collaborators
California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM)
Responsible party
Joseph C. Wu (Professor of Medicine and Radiology., Stanford University) — Sponsor-investigator
First posted
Oct 6, 2021
Start date
Mar 22, 2022
Primary completion
Oct 2028 (estimated)
Completion
Oct 2028 (estimated)
Last update
Sep 29, 2025

Study contacts

Joseph C. Wu, MD, PhD
Contact
joewu@stanford.edu
(650) 736-2246
Evgenios Neofytou, MD
Contact
neofytou@stanford.edu
(650) 736-2246

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
Yes
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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