British Doctors begin trials for heart stem cell therapy (11/8/2006)

British doctors launch a clinical trial to determine if an injection of stem cells within 5 hours of a heart attack will repair damage to the heart muscle.

The procedure similar to those also being tested in Germany and the United States involves harvesting stem cells from the patients own bone marrow, then injecting them directly onto the heart.

The trial, being conducted at Barts Hospital in London, will involve up to 100 people. The project is the first to be funded by the UK Stem Cell Foundation.

Heart attacks kill 108,000 people in the Great Britain each year, and there are currently 660,000 heart attack survivors. Estimates say that the heart attacks cost the British economy $15.2 billion a year. After a heart attack, the risk of heart failure is high. This treatment hopes to reduce that risk.

In the United States, 910,000 Americans die of heart disease annually, according to the American Heart Association. More than 70 million Americans daily live with some form of heart disease, which includes; high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, stroke, angina, heart attack and congenital heart defects.

The new trial will combine angioplasty with a stem cell injection. The stem cells are immature cells that have the ability to become any kind of body tissue. By putting the cells onto the heart, the cells become heart tissue after being treated to separate out the right type of cells.

Angioplasty is used to clear out a blocked artery by inserting a catheter into the main artery in the leg and is fed up to the blocked artery. A balloon is then inserted to open the vessel. Using a similar catheter, with an injection nozzle, the new stem cells are injected onto the heart through the same leg artery.

Dr Anthony Mathur, one of the doctors working on the trial, says "If we can demonstrate improvement in the quality of life of patients then this will be a significant step forward in the treatment of heart disease."

"Because the stem cells are taken from the patient themselves there are minimal ethical issues surrounding this procedure. There is also less likelihood of rejection complications."

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