A new stem cell study conducted in mice could pave the way for one day treating heart attack patients with their own cells, according to researchers at the University of California, San Francisco.
The UCSF team’s approach could lead to new treatments for heart patients that could improve cardiac function, minimize scars and develop new blood vessels.
The team’s research, published in the journal Public Library of Science ONE, involved experiments on stem cells that can develop into “beating heart cells" that make up the heart. They also cloned cells and grafted the cells onto the tissue of mice who had experienced heart attacks. The cells produced new blood vessels and led to improved heart function.
"These findings are very exciting," said lead author Dr. Jianqin Ye, a scientist at UCSF's Translational Cardiac Stem Cell Program. First, "we showed that we can isolate these cells from the heart of middle-aged animals, even after a heart attack." Second, he said, "we determined that we can return these cells to the animals to induce repair."
The hope, he said, is that the research will lead to new stem-cell techniques that would allow heart attack patients to be treated with their own stem cells to improve the overall health and function of the heart. Because the cells would have come from the patients themselves there would be no concern of cell rejection after therapy, which can happen in organ and tissue transplants.