Cell therapy in peripheral arterial disease.

Management of advanced obstructive vascular disease affecting the extremities poses tremendous challenges for physicians and patients. Peripheral arterial disease is often a consequence of obstructive atherosclerosis affecting the ileofemoral circulation but is also rarely a result of nonatherosclerotic conditions such as thromboangiitis obliterans (Buerger's disease). Consequences range from the presence of asymptomatic obstruction to intermittent claudication, development of rest pain, ulceration, gangrene, and amputation. A relatively new and promising approach using cell therapy has recently been developed to treat intractable symptoms related to ischemia in subjects with peripheral arterial disease in whom conventional medical therapy and revascularization modalities have been exhausted.