Stem Cells can Repair Damaged Heart

Latest research shows that the heart damaged from heart attack can be restored to its original condition with stem cell treatment.

According to Alan Heldman, MD, assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins, damage to heart due to attack can result in sudden death of patient, and decreased blood pumping can lead to heart failure. "Current heart attack treatments do not repair the damaged heart", says Joshua Hare, MD, professor of medicine at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and its Heart Institute.

At the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2004, Joshua Hare and colleagues tested the effects of adult stem cells, which serve as templates to produce other cells. This findings are based on experiment performed on pigs. Pigs have circulation systems similar to humans.

The stem cells used in the study are taken from adult pig’s bone marrow. Stem cells are considered to be very immature cells, capable of transforming into other types of functioning cells. According to researchers, embryonic stem cell can show better result than the adult cell.

Stem Cells repair Cardiac Tissue

The researchers performed experiment on 14 pigs who had suffered heart attacks. Three days after their heart attacks, half of the pigs had stem cells from another pig’s bone marrow injected into their heart. In order to thoroughly cover the area of damaged heart muscle - approximately the size of a $1 coin - researchers gave between 12 and 15 microscopic injections of adult stem cells, each injection containing nearly 200 million cells. The other pigs received placebo injections containing no cells.

It was found that the pigs that received the stem cells fared better. Within eight week, their damaged heart became normal. All the damaged heart tissue disappeared. The placebo group showed no improvement. Scientist claims the procedure to be safe and has no serious side effects.

The stem cells used in the study are known as mesenchymal cells. researchers believe that this cell have several other advantages. According to Hare, great thing about this cell is that they are plentiful, can be reproduced, and don’t trigger immune responses. Moreover, the adult stem cells also avoid ethical issues.

It is still unknown to the researchers how exactly the stem cells repaired the heart muscle or how long the results last.

Only further studies can reveal the fact.