Stem cells from strangers may heal scarred hearts

Scientists have successfully transplanted stem cells from donors into patients who suffered heart attacks and reduced their heart damage. The new research suggests stem cells donated by strangers proved as safe and effective as patients' own cells for helping restore heart tissue.

The study, published in the Nov. 5 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, involved only 30 patients in Miami and Baltimore, but it proves the concept that anyone's cells can be used to treat such cases. Doctors are excited because this suggests that stem cells could be banked for off-the-shelf use after heart attacks, just as blood is kept on hand now.

Results were also discussed Monday at an American Heart Association conference in Los Angeles.

The study used a specific type of stem cells from bone marrow, called mesenchymal stem cells, that researchers believed would not be rejected by recipients' immune systems. Unlike other cells, these lack a key feature on their surface that makes the body's protective antibodies see them as foreign tissue and attack them, explained the study's leader, Dr. Joshua Hare, director of the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute at the University of Miami.

Study participants had suffered heart attacks years earlier, some as long as 30 years ago. All had developed heart failure because the scar tissue from the heart attack had weakened their hearts so much that they grew large and flabby, unable to pump blood effectively.

About 5 million people in the U.S. have heart failure, contributing to 300,000 deaths each year.

Researchers advertised for people to supply marrow, which is removed using a needle into a hip bone. The cells were taken from the marrow and amplified for about a month in a lab at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University, then returned to Miami to be used for treatment, which did not involve surgery.

The stem cells were delivered through a tube pushed through a groin artery into the heart near the scarred area. Fifteen patients were given cells from their own marrow and 15 others, cells from strangers.

About a year later, scar tissue had been reduced by about one-third. Both groups had improvements in how far they could walk and in quality of life.

There was no significant difference in one measure of how well their hearts were able to pump blood, however doctors hope these patients will continue to improve over time, or that refinements in treatment will lead to better results.

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Stem cells from strangers may heal scarred hearts