<International Circulation>:The theme for this year’s congress was “From Genes to Outcome” and there has been a lot of research involving gene therapy， traditional medicines and stem cells in trying to treat heart conditions. Which ones do you think has the more potential in terms of routine clinical application?

    Professor Fausto Pinto: There were some sessions at this year’s congress dedicated stem cell myocardial therapy and it has been an area which has been looked upon over the last few years and the concept has been to restore the myocardium which has been damaged. However the results have been a little controversial and in this meeting the Star Heart Trial was presented which showed a significant difference regarding mortality between the group undergoing stem cell treatment as to compared to the control group. Although， this was a relatively small trial I think we still have a long way to go for the use of stem cells in terms of therapeutic application.  It is however a potential new avenue which is being explored and should be continued to be explored in order to answer several questions: what are the best types of cells to be used and how should they be best administered. 

   《国际循环》：本届ESC年会的主题是“从基因到转归”，有很多有关基因治疗、传统医药和干细胞移植治疗心脏疾病的研究公布。您认为哪些治疗方法最有潜力被应用到日常的临床实践当中去？
    Pinto教授：本届ESC年会的一些论坛讨论了干细胞移植治疗心肌梗死，这是近几年来的研究方向之一。但是，对其研究结果还有一定的争议。本届ESC年会公布的Star Heart试验显示干细胞治疗组的死亡率显著低于对照组。但是，该研究的样本量较小。我想，干细胞治疗用于临床实践还有很长的路要走。当然，干细胞是潜在的新的治疗手段，我们目前在研究它，未来也应当继续研究下去，目的是解答一些问题：哪种细胞最适合移植？最佳的移植途径是什么？

Professor Fausto Pinto is the Director of the Lisbon Cardiovascular Institute and nominated chairman  of the ESC Scientific Committee for 2009-2010.

Fausto Pinto教授是葡萄牙里斯本心血管研究院院长，担任ESC科学委员会主席（2009~2010）。