Using a person's own stem cells to repair a human heart damaged by an attack is now closer to
reality
Can Adult stem cell therapy truly repair a broken heart?
That could be a rapidly approaching reality as scientists are studying how adult stem cells can
repair damaged cells and tissue after a heart attack.
An international research group in the journal Nature says that it has boosted the formation of new
heart muscle cells by treating mice with a small molecule. It's been discovered that the method has
encouraged the regrowth of blood vessels.
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - An international research group in the journal
Nature says that it has boosted the formation of new heart muscle cells by treating mice with a
small molecule. It's been discovered that the method has encouraged the regrowth of blood
vessels.
If the technique can be replicated in humans, it holds great promise because the damage caused by a
heart attack is usually permanent and can lead to heart failure.
British Heart Foundation associate medical director Jeremy Pearson said a way to repair damaged
hearts was a "holy grail" of medical research.
"This groundbreaking study shows that adult hearts contain adult cells that, given the right
stimulus, can mobilize and turn into new heart cells that might repair a damaged heart," Professor
Pearson said.
"The team have identified the crucial molecular signals needed to make this happen."
The British, U.S. and Chinese team, led by Paul Riley, was overseen by the University College
London's Molecular Medicine Unit.
"I could envisage a patient known to be at risk of a heart attack -- either because of family
history or warning signs spotted by their GP -- taking an oral tablet . . . which would prime their
heart so that if they had a heart attack the damage could be repaired," Riley said.
Stem cell scientist Nadia Rosenthal has cautioned that there had been a "flurry" of similar but
ultimately disappointing reports.
The molecule Professor Riley's group used was a so-called peptide named thymosin B4. It stimulated
stem cells found in the epicardium, the outer layer of the heart, known as epicardium-derived
progenitor cells, or EPDCs.
According to Professor Rosenthal, study of the restorative power of EPDCs could help answer a
biology mystery: why a week after birth do the hearts of mice -- and people -- lose the ability to
regenerate damaged tissue, unlike those of fish and salamanders.
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