Damaged heart tissue can be regenerated: Study suggests
25 Jul 2016
Patients with critically damaged hearts have received a new lease of life from stem cell injections in a ground breaking trial.
With the pioneering approach, researchers were able to reverse scar tissue in a trial of 11 seriously ill patients who had suffered heart attacks. The therapy also held promise of benefiting millions who had suffered heart failure and it was hoped that it might make it unnecessary to replace damaged hearts with transplants.
None of the patients was expected to live longer than 24 months when the operations were conducted between November 2012 and September 2013.
However, the patients were still alive and more active than they had been earlier following the implantation of stem cells created by UK firm Celixir, founded by Nobel laureate professor Sir Martin Evans.
A larger trial had been planned at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London later this year.
The operations were carried out by surgeon professor Steve Westaby, of the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, in London, with Greek specialists Kryiakos Anastasiadis and Polychronis Antonitsis of the General University Hospital of Thessaloniki.
The small-scale study, is published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Translational Research.
The therapy led to a 40 per cent reduction in the size of scarred tissue. Such scarring occurs during a cardiac event such as a heart attack, and could up the chances of further heart failure. The scarring had earlier been thought to be permanent and irreversible.
At the time of treatment, the patients had a very high (70 per cent) annual mortality rate. However, 36 months after receiving the stem cell treatment all were still alive, and none had suffered a further cardiac event such as a heart attack or stroke, or had any readmissions for cardiac-related reasons.
According to the British Heart Foundation, while there were several treatments to help people with heart failure, there was no known cure, and in some cases a heart transplant might be the only option.
