PROM1 and ischemic cardiomyopathy: In the present study, we evaluated the effectiveness of the systemic application of expanded CD133+ cells and expanded CD133+ cell-derived EVs for the treatment of ischemic cardiomyopathy in a rat model of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and examined the hypothesis that the EVs, because of their critical role in transferring regenerative signals from stem cells to the injured tissues, might elicit an equal or better therapeutic response than the expanded CD133+ cells.