Scientists may have found a way to mend a ‘broken’ heart using cardiac stem cells from the heart itself, which regenerate the damaged muscles in heart attack patients.
The breakthrough treatment halved the amount of permanent scarring on the damaged heart in those who had had a heart attack – and led to new heart muscle growth.
Researchers from the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles recruited 25 patients aged around 53 years old, who had suffered a heart attack within the last month.
Seventeen participants received coronary artery infusions of 12 to 25m stem cells taken from healthy tissue from their own hearts.
This was done by placing a tube into a vein in the patient’s neck and then pushing it down towards the heart. A sample of tissue, around the same size of a raisin, was then taken.
The remaining eight underwent the standard, post-heart attack health care.
A year later, the scarring on the damaged hearts that received the stem cell treatment, had reduced from 24% to 12%. Scientists found no difference in heart scar tissue in patients who received standard care.
Although the results were positive when it came to repairing heart scar tissue, researchers added that there were no significant changes in the 'ejection fraction' in the heart - the ability to measure the heart’s pumping capacity.
Talking about the study's findings, professor Eduardo Marban, from the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, said in a statement: “The effects are substantial, and surprisingly larger in humans than they were in animal tests.
"This discovery challenges the conventional wisdom that, once established, scar is permanent and that, once lost, healthy heart muscle cannot be restored."
The study was published in The Lancet and follows the findings by Chinese scientists from Fudan University, in Shanghai.
They discovered too that stem cells can regenerate the heart – this time, they tested on zebra fish and mice and found that stem cell treatment can enlarge the heart, stimulating healthy heart muscles following a heart attack.
Linda Main, a dietician for HEART UK, told The Huffington Post: “This ground breaking research is really great news for the 250,000 people admitted every year to our hospitals with a heart attack or severe angina and especially to those with premature heart disease.
"Whilst this research demonstrates it may be possible to heal heart muscle, the need to prevent heart disease remains. To do this we need to reduce and mange key risk factors amongst the UK population such as raised cholesterol, high blood pressure, smoking and inherited risk.
"For example reducing serum cholesterol by 10% in men aged 40 has been reported to result in a 50% reduction in heart disease within five years."
Professor Jeremy Pearson, our Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, said in a statement: “It’s the first time these scientists’ potentially exciting work has been carried out in humans, and the results are very encouraging.
"It's early days, and this research will certainly need following up, but it could be great news for heart attack patients who face the debilitating symptoms of heart failure."
Adding to this, professor Peter Weissberg from the BHF, said in his blog: "Importantly, the study showed that the procedure was safe (a primary objective of this early clinical trial).
"Encouragingly, it showed that, compared with patients who did not receive the cells, the hearts of patients who had received CDCs had smaller scars and more healthy heart muscle."
