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Stem cell therapy after heart attack may be not effective as expected

11/15/2011 02:28:00 admin
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By Stephen Lau

A study sponsored by the National, Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) shows that therapy with bone-marrow derived cells does not improve heart function. The results of this trial to test the safety and potential benefits of extending stem cell delivery to 2-3 weeks following a heart attack will appear in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Susan B. Shurin, M.D., director of the NHLBI, said that stem cell therapy is a promising direction for repairing the damage done by a heart attack, and the optimal use of these cells is not fully understandable yet.

Susan’s team enrolled 87 people with heart attacks who had undergone cardiac procedures to open blocked arteries from July 2008 and February 2011. They developed a standardized method of processing and purifying these stem cells. After that, participants were randomly asked to receive either their purified bone marrow cells or inactive cells.

Six months later, the researchers assessed the improvement of heart function, but found no significant differences in the percentage of blood that gets pumped out of the left ventricle during each contraction by cardiac MRI.

"Many factors influence how the heart responds to stem cells, which highlights the critical need to continue rigorous tracking studies in this area," said Lemuel A. Moyé, M.D., Ph.D., professor of biostatistics at the University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston.

Heart attacks most often occur as a result of coronary heart disease (CHD), also called coronary artery disease. CHD is a condition in which a waxy substance called plaque (plak) builds up inside the coronary arteries.

Taking certain drugs, such as cocaine, emotional stress or pain and cigarette smoking are related to cause the disease.

To know more about heart attack and Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network, you may be interested in websites as follow:

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