The heart failure breakthrough involves injecting patients with their own stem cells.
The
quick and easy procedure saw doctors take bone marrow from the
patients’ hips before injecting them directly into the heart to
strengthen the muscle.
Heart pumping function
improved within six months for every patient given the ground-breaking
treatment. They also enjoyed improved fitness and could walk longer
distances.
The trial offers new hope to the tens
of thousands of people struck down by heart failure each year in the UK
and could transform the lives of millions suffering the after-effects
of a heart attack.
The research, published
online in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, took place
at the Mayo Clinic’s Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Rochester,
Minnesota.
I think it’s an exciting time where regenerative medicine is no longer science fiction
Lead researcher
Dr Andre Terzic said: “I think it’s an exciting time where regenerative
medicine is no longer science fiction. This study is providing clinical
evidence for a new approach in cardiovascular regenerative medicine.”
In
the trial, 45 heart failure patients were treated with a special type
of stem cell harvested from the top of the patient’s hip.
Researchers used proteins to instruct the stem cells to behave like heart cells and then injected them into the patient’s heart.
All
patients saw greater improvements in their heart health than another
group given the standard treatments for heart failure. The amount of
blood pumped out with each heartbeat increased by a dramatic seven per
cent. Professor Peter Weissberg, of the British Heart Foundation, said:
“More research is needed to identify just what it is in these cells that
causes this effect."
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