Angioblast also has access to a variety of recombinant or chemically-synthesized short peptide-based products known as chemokines that have been shown to induce stem cell migration. The most advanced and well characterized of these chemokines is stromal derived factor-1 (SDF-1) which is a very potent agent for inducing migration of hematopoietic type stem cells and is produced by stromal cells such as MPCs.

Angioblast has found in preclinical studies that human SDF-1 can cause homing of hematopoietic stem cells to the site of ischemic injury, resulting in growth of new blood vessels, and protection and regeneration of heart muscle. Together, these effects accounted for dramatic improvement in cardiac functional recovery following myocardial infarction. Additionally, SDF-1 was found to be additive in these effects when combined with Angioblast's MPCs. Other investigators have validated these findings and have also demonstrated that genetically overexpressing SDF-1 via transduction of cells similarly results in improvement in cardiac function.

This suggests that developing an economical method of delivery for SDF-1 at the site of an acute myocardial infarct will result in a synergistic therapeutic with MPCs. Angioblast is initiating a coronary artery stent program to develop a biological delivery device to achieve maximal SDF-1 therapeutic concentrations and to generate slow release of the peptide into the coronary circulation.