Adult Stem Cells Effective in Treating Heart Attacks
Final results of a study conducted at Johns Hopkins University show stem cell therapy can be used effectively to treat heart attacks in pigs.
Researchers said in just two months, stem cells harvested from another pig's bone marrow and injected into the animal's damaged heart restored heart function and repaired damaged heart muscle by 50 percent to 75 percent.
Two patients have already been enrolled at Hopkins in a Phase I clinical trial designed to test the safety of injecting adult stem cells at varying doses into patients who have recently suffered heart attacks. In total, 48 patients will participate in the study at several sites across the country.
Results are not expected until the middle of next year.
The Hopkins findings appear in this week's online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
LifeNews reports that this isn't the first study that is showing how adult stem cells can help repair heart damage.
A University of South Florida research team injected human umbilical cord blood stem cells into the hearts of rats an hour after a heart attack. The researchers found that the stem cells greatly reduced the size of damage, restoring the heart's pumping function to near normal. In addition, scar tissue was minimized.
In Thailand, Chaophya Hospital is now treating no-option heart disease patients with adult stem cell therapy developed by TheraVitae. The proprietary technique is aimed at helping those with coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure utilizing adult stem cells harvested from the patient’s own blood.
Robert Clark, TheraVitae's Chairman, comments, "Our message is that, unlike the cell cloning technique announced in South Korea ..., which has serious moral and ethical implications, and will probably take years to develop into a viable therapy, our technique is helping patients today."
Related:
Adult Stem Cells Treat Heart Disease
Embryonic Stem Cell Research - Unethical and Not Working
stem cells
Posted July 26, 2005 3:19 PM
