Stem cells in heart attack care
Feb
14
Written by:
14/02/2012 12:45
Experts using stem cells to repair patients' hearts have moved a step closer to developing regenerative treatments for heart attacks.
Experts using stem cells to repair patients' hearts have moved a step closer to developing regenerative treatments for heart attacks.
New research has shown that coronary artery infusions of stem cells halved the extent of scarring on the heart and increased the growth of new muscle.
A trial took 25 patients who had all suffered a heart attack in the previous month. Seventeen of the patients received coronary artery infusions of 12 to 25 million stem cells, which were taken from healthy tissue of their own hearts. The other eight patients received conventional post-heart attack treatment.
After one year, tests revealed the proportion of the heart left scarred in the stem cell patients had reduced from 24% to 12%. For those who received standard care, no change was seen.
The director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, Professor Eduardo Marban, who led the research, said: "This discovery challenges the conventional wisdom that, once established, scar is permanent and that, once lost, healthy heart muscle cannot be restored."
The Phase 1 study was published in an online edition of medical journal The Lancet.
Copyright Press Association 2012