Regenerative Heart Medicine Could Get Boost With Nanotechnology

March 21, 2013

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports Your Universe Online

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have developed a new visualization technique which they believe could eventually help make the repair of damaged hearts through regenerative medicine a reality.

In a study published in Wednesdays edition of the journal Science Translational Medicine, senior author and Stanford radiology professor Sam Gambhir and colleagues describe how they plan to mark the stem cells which would be used in the repair process.

By marking the cells, doctors would be able to track them by using standard ultrasounds as they leave the needle and enter a patients body. The process would allow for the stem cells to be guided to their intended destination more precisely, and would also allow doctors to monitor them using magnetic-resonance imaging (MRI) technology for several weeks afterwards, the researchers explained.

To date, both human and animal trials in which stem cells were injected into cardiac tissue to treat severe heart attacks or heart failure have been largely unsuccessful, said Gambhir.

Were arguing that the failure is at least partly due to faulty initial placement, he explained in a statement. You can use ultrasound to visualize the needle through which you deliver stem cells to the heart. But once those cells leave the needle, youve lost track of them.

For this reason, scientists have been unable to precisely determine whether or not the stem cells actually reached the heart wall, and whether they remained there or diffused away from the cardiac tissue. In addition, there has been no way to determine how long the cells managed to stay alive, or if they successfully replicate and eventually develop into heart cells.

Gambhirs team method could help answer some of those questions.

All stem cell researchers want to get the cells to the target site, but up until now theyve had to shoot blindly, he said. With this new technology, they wouldnt have to. For the first time, they would be able to observe in real time exactly where the stem cells theyve injected are going and monitor them afterward.

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Regenerative Heart Medicine Could Get Boost With Nanotechnology