Stem cells may offer promise for damaged hearts

This article talks about the stem cell research going on right now in cardiology. Scientists are trying to promote regeneration of the heart or preventing scar formation. One of the studies that reportedly successful in humans involves harvesting the patients’ own stem cells, purify them, and inject them directly into cardiac muscle. “It’s important to point out that this is a use of a patient’s own body’s repair capabilities,” says Losordo, a cardiologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. If all goes well this treatment could be widely available in a little over four years. The target population would be end-stage cardiac patients who have tried all the other options.

However, as with all procedures there are some health risks. Since the stem cells are injected through a catheter, there is about a 1% risk of perforation. The injection of stem cells in cardiac muscles carries the risk of arrhythmia and blood clotting due to the drug that mobilizes stem cells.

Scientists are working on a less invasive technique. In a study using mice, they took stem cells from the bone marrow and injected it into skeletal muscles in the limbs. The stem cells produced growth factors that traveled to the heart which improved cardiac function. The challenging part for making this method work in humans is that it would take close to a billion stem cells, which is far too expensive. Scientists are working on a way to make this method more realistic. One of the main ideas is to inject stem cells from a stem cell bank into the patient via an IV.

The FDA regulates which adult stem cell techniques are allowed to go into clinical trials. This limits the research going on with stem cells, and whether the FDA will become more or less lenient is unclear at the time.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/07/14/heart.stem.cells/index.html

Kelli Martinez
VTPP 434-502