Adult autologous bone marrow-derived cells contribute to the healing of myocardial infarction. At the author's institution patients after acute myocardial infarction and patients with chronic coronary heart disease and old infarction were treated. In both patient groups a significant decrease of the infarct area, an improvement of regional contractility and global left ventricular function could be demonstrated. Additional tests with SPECT and positron emission tomography could show an improved myocardial perfusion and an increased glucose uptake in the infarcted area after intracoronary bone marrow cell transplantation. Long-term controls of both patient groups could demonstrate, that the left ventricular pump function was not only increased after 3 months, but also after 12 and 24 (-36) months, respectively. These results demonstrate that functional and metabolic regeneration of infarcted and chronically avital tissue can be released in humans by bone marrow-derived cell transplantation.