The relevance pathology of the cardiovascular system,the development of effective treatments for patients withcoronary heart disease, chronic lower limb ischemia areundeniable. New approaches are developed consideringlimitations of feasibility and efficacy of standard methodsof treatment (surgical and conservative). Gene therapy isone of the most promising. This review covers the resultsof experimental and clinical studies to assess the position ofgene therapy in cardiovascular surgery and medicine todayand in the future.

Development of the fundamental and clinical «regenerativemedicine» is based on the progress of gene, stem cell andgene-cell biotechnologies. However, the reliable preclinicalinvestigations on animal models and more over clinical trialsstay far away from the available nowadays gene and cellconstructions. Neuroscience is one of the fast growing fieldsof knowledge in biology and medicine. Pioneer experimentsin neuroscience promises breakthrough in the innovativemethods for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases innear future. This review addresses strategies for gene-celltherapy of neurodegenerative diseases by the example ofamyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Precisely gene modification ofmononuclear fraction of umbilical cord blood cells (UCBC)by dual cassette plasmid vectors is observed. Based onour own results of transplantation of genetically modifiedUCBC overexpressing recombinant neural cell adhesionmolecule L1, vascular endothelial growth factor, fibroblastgrowth factor 2, and glial derived neurotrophic factor indifferent combinations we provide the experimental datafor usefulness of transplantation of gene modified UCBCfor treating neurodegenerative diseases. In the review wediscuss the efficacy of gene modification of UCBC not onlyfor secretion of recombinant proteins, but in increasing oftransplanted cells survivability, their migration possibilitiesand capability to differentiate in endothelial, microglial andmacroglial cell types.

Cerebral palsy is pathological condition caused by theirreversible damage or dysembryogenesis of the brain. Todaythere is no effective therapy of the patients suffering fromcerebral palsy, and the researchers and clinicists have tosearch the alternative methods of treatment. Cell therapywith the use of different types of stem cells is the promisingyet not well-examined approach to the correction of thestatus of patients. In this review the possible future methodsof stem cell therapy of cerebral palsy are discussed.

At present, novel osteoinductive materials containingrecombinant bone morphogenetic proteins (rhBMPs) areactively being developed for «regenerative medicine»,traumatology and orthopedics. To evaluate the effectof rhBMPs in materials, the great interest is to studyosteoinductive properties of the materials in experimentalmodels in vivo. In this paper we show that application of bonemorphogenetic protein rhBMP-2 in demineralized cancellousbone blocks provides great improving osteoinductivity of thematerial in the ectopic model subcutaneous implantation inrats. This improvement was reflected in multifold accelerationof mineralization and in active forming a new structuredcollagen matrix in the material. The model of ectopicsubcutaneous implantation to rats is very convenience testsystem to detect increase in osteoinductivity of materialscaused by application of rhBMP-2, and to identify features ofectopic bone formation in these materials.

The paper presents the results of experiments on freetransplantation of auto- and allogeneic cartilage ear treated andnot treated with platelet-rich plasma, which forms a proteinplateletmembrane (BTO) after polymerization on a cartilagefragment. We used histological and immunohistochemicalanalysis (identification of CD163+-cells). Dynamics of tissuereactions was defined. It was shown that allogeneic andresorbed cartilage without BTO in subcutaneous implantationthe most rapidly, but autocartilage with the BTO degradedthe most slowly. At the same time, continuing for at least 2weeks the BTO is a substrate for the formation of a connectivetissue capsule. The dynamics of tissue events is consistentwith classical ideas about the course of reparative processesafter injury: alteration, phagocytosis of tissue detritus as anintegral link of the inflammatory response and granulationtissue development, its «maturation».

In the model of adult rat spinal cord contusion on the Th9level effect of the immediate transplantation of the humanolfactory mucosa cell into the damaged area were studied.No immunosuppression was used. It was shown thattransplanted cells were survived as long as 7 days aftertransplantation and located in rostral and caudal directions inwhite matter on the 2 mm distance from points of injections.It was shown also that transplanted cells migrated intoperipheral zone of the damaged area. The size of damagedarea in white and especially in gray matters were decreasedafter 30 and 60 days after transplantation. The same timeafter 30 days after transplantation the size of pathologicalcavities mostly in anterior column were obviously diminishedand that number of undamaged myelinated nerve fibers wereincreased in number around the area of transplantation

The treatment of patients with radiation burns andtheir effects is difficult. The basis for therapeutic strategyis surgical techniques, use of which is not always effective.Moreover, surgical methods are not always feasible inits entirety because of physical condition of patients andanatomical features of affected area. In this regard, neweffective therapeutic approaches are developing. Use ofcellular technology is one of the most promising approaches.Burnazyan FMBC specialists have successful experienceof treatment patients with local radiation injury using cellpreparations from multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells inthe clinical trial, which resulted in the present article.

Fetal cells enter into mother`s body during pregnancyand remain there for many years. In female body accumulategenetically foreign cells of all pregnancies, regardless of whatthey have ended (a miscarriage, an abortion or a childbirth). Itis shown that fetal cells are found in various maternal tissuesand organs including blood, bone marrow, liver, lungs and skin.The interaction nature of foreign cells entering the mothersbody in a natural way with her own cells and immune systemof mother can be extrapolated to the study of chimerism inthe iatrogenic effects on the body, such as hematopoieticstem cell transplantation or blood transfusion. Natural fetomaternalmicrochimerism has important effect on the immunestatus of women contributing to development of autoimmuneconditions and tolerance to transplants. Understandingthe fact that fetal cells able to pass through the placentaland blood brain barrier, to migrate in various tissuesand to differentiate in multiple cell types can be used fordevelopment of cell therapy. The studies of long-term effectsfeto- maternal microchimerism can get more favorable andunfavorable prognostic criteria for womens health, but alsoable to fundamentally change the understanding of currentprinciples of clinical genetics.This paper presents an overview of knowledge aboutmicrochimerism appeared during pregnancy and current viewson the implications of this unique biological phenomenon.

Advances in methods of molecular genetic diagnosis havemade it possible to determine whether a child will be born with acertain genetic disorder. And the use of assisted reproductivetechnologies make it possible to screen for genetic conditionsat an earlier embryonic stage, before implanting the embryoin the mothers uterus. However, such diagnostic technologiescan potentially be used for non-medical purposes, i.e., for sexselection. This contradicts to modern concepts of bioethics,so most countries have introduced legislative restrictions onthe conduction of such genetic testing.