|
Source: Reuters Health, The Lancet; February 7,
2003
Adult Stem Cells May Treat Heart Attack
Damage
New York, NY -- For the first time, researchers have shown that
stem cells transplanted from a patient's muscle tissue to the heart
may be able to take over for cardiac muscle damaged by a heart attack.
A 72-year-old man with chronic heart failure due to a past heart
attack underwent the procedure in June 2000 and showed improvement
in his symptoms and heart function, according to French physicians.
And when the patient died of a stroke a year-and-a-half later, an
autopsy showed that the muscle stem cells--precursors of mature
muscle cells--that had been transplanted from his thigh muscle to
his heart had developed into mature skeletal-muscle fibers.
Although the transplanted thigh muscle cells had not been "transformed"
into true cardiac cells, they did "look functional" and differed
somewhat from regular skeletal muscle, Dr. Albert A. Hagege told
Reuters Health.
"This is the first demonstration of the concept in humans," Hagege
said, the "concept" being that primitive cells taken from a patient's
skeletal muscle can develop and survive within a damaged area of
heart muscle.
Hagege and his colleagues had previously reported on the patient's
improvements in heart-failure symptoms and heart function, which
were apparent 5 months after the transplant. However, the man had
also received a bypass operation to reroute blood flow around blockages
in his heart arteries, which could also be credited for his improvements.
Heart failure is a chronic condition in which the muscle cannot
pump blood efficiently enough to meet the body's needs. It arises
from underlying damage to the heart muscle, often caused by heart
attack.
The point of shuttling stem cells from the skeletal muscle to the
heart is to help damaged areas regain their ability to contract,
according to Hagege, of the Hopital Europeen Georges Pompidou in
Paris.
So far, he said, his team has completed an early trial of the therapy
with 10 patients in France, and an international trial set to include
300 patients is beginning.
Other researchers have recently used stem cells from patients' bone
marrow to try to spur blood vessel growth in areas of heart damage,
with some reporting encouraging early results.
Hagege said his team's tactic involves taking a muscle tissue biopsy
and harvesting cells that are later injected directly into the damaged
region of the patient's heart. Because of the invasive nature of
the procedure, the researchers have worked with patients who needed
bypass surgery anyway. But in the future, Hagege added, they hope
to be able to infuse the cells through a catheter.
|
