Stem Cell Treatment for Heart in Trial Phase

Surgeons at the University of Bristol and the Bristol Heart Institute are getting ready to undertake a pioneering study to test the possibility of using stem cells to repair the heart muscle damage caused by a heart attack.

When a person suffers a heart attack, the heart’s muscle gets starved of oxygen due to blocked blood vessels. The lack of oxygen causes death of cells in that part of the heart and leaves it scarred.

The scarring leads to a reduction in the heart’s ability to pump blood around the body. This can potentially lead to heart failure. Coronary bypass surgery or angioplasty (mechanical stretching of the heart blood vessels) can help improve the blood supply to a certain extent; however these techniques can’t restore full functionality to the area that has already been damaged.

The scarring of the heart also causes other complications; within six months of bypass surgery, walls of the heart of one fifth of patients tend to thin dangerously.

Stem cells are the basic building blocks of the body and have the potential to develop into many different types of cells. A number of studies have already highlighted the ability of stem cells to repair damaged tissues in the body and scientists believe it might be possible to restore functionality to the heart using these cells.

Dr. Raimondo Ascione and colleagues will be conducting the trial which is expected to begin in August. Sixty patients have volunteered for the revolutionary procedure in which they will be injected with their own bone marrow stem cells during routine coronary bypass surgery. Another 100 patients will be undergoing similar operations in parallel trials being carried out in London.

The researchers hope to carry out the procedure on patients who have had a heart attack within the last 10 days to three months, the ideal period for providing intervention to heart attack patients.

In addition to surgery, 50% of the volunteers will be administered heart muscle injections of their own stem cells that have been harvested from bone marrow. The remaining half will also have surgery and receive an injection, but it will be a dummy one.

Information on which patients have received stem cells and which ones have received a dummy injection will be kept confidential to ensure that an unbiased comparison can be drawn over the six months following the surgery.

Consultant cardiac surgeon Dr. Ascione said, “We should know within six months of the surgery whether the stem-cell treatment has made a difference. If this trial is successful it could be a major breakthrough with major clinical implications. It could allow heart attack patients to have a good quality of life.”

The surgeons believe usage of the patients’ own stem cells should ensure there is no risk of rejection or infection. “It also gets around the ethical issues that would result from use of stem cells from embryonic or foetal tissue,” Dr. Ascione added. The Bristol surgeons believe usage of stem cells should reduce scarring in the heart and help improve its pumping action as well as protect against future heart complications.

Professor Jeremy Pearson of the British Heart Foundation said, “We hope that this exciting Bristol project will provide information taking us a step nearer to the day when stem cells can be used routinely to help repair damaged hearts.”

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